The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts
by Lazorrock
Summary: Lucy is a magical girl who came from a game called Shining Magic. She is exiled from her game because of a dark evil that went and took over her game. Now 9 years later she is grown up and must try to find a way back home before her game becomes completely eliminated. Along the way she meets a bad guy named Ralph, and soon an adventure begins...
1. Prologue: Lucy's Adventure Begins

**A/N**: Hello. I'm sort of new to this fan fiction writing (actually I'm a total novice to it), but I thought I would give it a try. About one year ago, I saw a fantastic Disney movie named Wreck-It-Ralph. I fell in love with this movie after I saw it for the first time. Since then, I thought of a story to take place after the events of the movie. I contemplated in my mind the perfect story, and I finally came up with one. It waited patiently in the back of my mind to be written, and now after a year, I finally plucked up the courage to write it.

So I hope you enjoy the prologue, and please tell me what you think about it. I would love some feedback to how I did, and maybe how I can improve.

**Disclaimer**: All copyrighted characters from Wreck-It-Ralph belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond between Two Hearts: A Wreck-It-Ralph Fan Fiction

Prologue: Lucy's Adventure Begins

There was always something special about her. Whether it is her magical powers or her kindness to others, Lucy was someone to count on as a friend. The sad part about her was that she was an outcast ever since her game was plugged in at Litwak's Family Fun Center and Arcade. When her game, _Shining Magic_, was plugged in, gamers came from every nearby neighborhood to play it. It was almost as popular as the first games first plugged into Litwak's Arcade.

The game _Shining Magic_, was an adventure game where the gamer controls the characters. The goal of the game was to push back the forces of evil and darkness from the kingdom of Maic using powerful magic used for good. The only ones who can recieve this magic are the children who are defined special in the eyes of the light. One of these children was in fact Lucy.

As a 12 year old child Lucy was indeed different from the rest of her fellow players. When the game was plugged in, all of the characters were there, except for one. Lucy was the last child to appear in the game, when in fact she was supposed to appear when the game was plugged in. Her powers were also as strange as the late appearance: Lucy had the power of Light. The rest of the children thought she was a freak as soon as she was born. They would scold and laugh at her for being so different.

"Look! There goes the little freak!"

"Hey Lucy! Why don't you bring life to this dead leaf!"

"She'll never fit in, she's just too different from us!"

"It's not my fault for being so different." She would always reply, yet no one listened.

The only person that would stick around Lucy was her twin sister named Daisy. At least, that's what Lucy thought of Daisy as. Daisy was the most popular player in _Shining Magic_, and the strongest of them all. She had the power to control the element of Water, Wind, and Fire. But unlike the other children, 13 year old Daisy had ideas of her own. She explored in places no other child has gone before, and wished for something more than herself.

When Lucy was born, she did not scold and make fun of her like the rest of the children. Instead, she would treat her as if she was her own sister. They became best friends as soon as they saw each other. Every night when the arcade closes, Daisy would run off with Lucy and have lots of adventures outside their kingdom.

Lucy would always ask each time: "Where are we going Daisy?"

"You'll see." Daisy would always reply.

The adventures they went on ranged from finding The Hidden Nest (a secret hideout for just Lucy and Daisy), to exploring the Ruins of Our Past(a cave with drawings the two girls did not understand), right down to one day exploring the tunnel that lead to Grand Central Station.

"What do you think is beyond that gate Lucy?" Daisy asked, peering into the dark tunnel.

"I don't know," Lucy replied nervously, "But maybe we shouldn't go. It could be dangerous."

"Oh, come on Lucy!" Daisy chortled, "It can't be that bad of a place!"

She grabbed on to Lucy's shoulder. "Think about it…" she whispered, "Millions of other characters just like us right outside our very game, can you imagine it?"  
>Lucy looked at her friend, and then stared into the dark tunnel. A tunnel that lead out of her home and into a world full of unknown and doubt. It was forbidden by her kingdom to ever enter through the tunnel. She had never thought of leaving a place that she felt she didn't belong in. All those years of being treated like an outcast by her peers, laughed at for having the only power in her world that no one else had.<p>

"I…." she started, and then sadly sighed.

"What's the matter sis?" asked Daisy.

Lucy looked at her sister. She saw her as the big hope in her whole life, yet Lucy felt she was being distant with her as well as the rest.

"Nothing." She replied.

A smile spread across Daisy's face, so Lucy tried to bear a smile to let her very best friend know that she was alright. She was not happy though, Lucy was very unhappy to be alive. Yet she managed to bring a smile to her sad face. _"Daisy… I wish…."_

"HEY LET'S GO!" Daisy shouted, already running.

Lucy shrugged it off, and ran to catch up with her as they headed back to Maic.  
>0 - 0 - 0 - 0<br>"GO, GO!" Daisy shouted.

"I'M GOING!" Lucy shouted back.

Fire and Ice whizzed by their faces as the girls made their way towards the gate that lead out of Maic. As Lucy ran, she looked back to see the destruction that lay behind her. A huge, dark shadowy figure towered above the carnage.

"Keep running!" Daisy yelled.

The shadowy figure turned to look at the little figure of Lucy. She stopped right in her tracks, terrified as the figure made its way closer and closer. Lucy was struck down in fear. It wasn't just a few days before when she was on her last adventure with Daisy to the forbidden tunnel, and now was nearly close to death, her home crumbling around her. Suddenly something pushed her down. She tumbled and rolled down until she stopped, laying face up to the blackened sky. Pain went through her arms and legs as she struggled to get up. Her legs quivered as she stood up. Suddenly swarms of shadows passed by her. They were shapeless, mindless beings of evil that would destroy everything in their paths just to satisfy their hunger. Lucy looked around and saw that she was the only one who made it out of the kingdom.

_"Daisy, where is Daisy?!" _was Lucy's first thought. She turned around and saw a horrible sight. Daisy, Lucy's sister and her only friend in her world…_was gone_. Swallowed up by the darkness that consumed her home. She wanted to run back and try her best to save her, but she knew that her powers were not ready for her yet. She could not as much as knock an opponent down, she could only use a little of her healing powers that she possessed. Frustrated, Lucy was torn between going back and saving Daisy, or running away and hopefully the shadows would not catch her.

Then, she remembered where the forbidden tunnel was. _"What did Daisy say about it? Millions of other characters on the other side?"_ Lucy gasped. _"Maybe they can help me!"_

With this she came up with one solution: all she could do now was _run_…run away from the darkness and into the tunnel to find help. Taking a huge breath, Lucy ran her way up to the dark tunnel. Without hesitation, she kept running until the game _Shining Magic_ was out of sight.

At first the tunnel was so dark that Lucy was unable to see past her hands. She kept going, determined to reach her goal. But the darkness of the tunnel closed in around her. Lucy felt so lost without Daisy to guide her. Unable to keep going, she felt tears come down her eyes and softly, she began to cry. She began to lose hope. But then, she saw something in the dark.

_"What is it?" _she wondered, _"I can't make it out."_

Lucy walked slowly toward it blindly, squinting her eyes to see if she could see it clearer. Suddenly she felt a warm sensation reaching out to her. It seems to reach out to touch the very being of her. She looked back at what used to be her home.

"Daisy…" Lucy sighed sadly. Her eyes began to tear up.

_"No! I can't give up. My sister wouldn't let me." _

Then she saw something that was glowing on her shoulder. The symbol that represented her magical powers glowed a golden light that she had never seen before. Lucy then realized that as long as her magic light is glowing, there is hope. She took a deep breath and then with a confidence strong in her heart, ran towards what was to be the end of the tunnel. Out of nowhere there came a bright light. Shielding her eyes Lucy stumbled out of the tunnel into the doorway that would lead to Grand Central Station. Looking up she saw a bright light bulb in the middle of the ceiling, towering above her.

"Where am I?" Lucy muttered drowsily.

She looked above to find an illuminated sign that read:

**Shining Magic**

**Out of Order: No Trespassing**

"That's my game!" she shouted dazedly, _"But why does it say Out of Order?"_

The light bulb above began to flicker. Lucy began to realize that she was not at home anymore: she was in what seemed to be the real world. Slowly Lucy sank down to the floor, hugging her arms to her knees with tears stinging her eyes.

_"I wish Daisy was here…."_she sadly thought, tears streaming down her face, _"I miss my sister, the citizens of Maic; I even miss the children that always picked on me." _She smiled at the thought, but then shrugged it off.

Now the light bulb was starting to go out. Then something moved from the tunnel behind Lucy. She turned, frightened to think that the shadowy figure she saw before Daisy push her away from it was after her again. A flash of light zipped by, knocking her down. Rubbing her head she sat back up, to find that a beautiful, white dove was staring right into her face.

"WOAH, AHH!" She screamed as the dove fluttered in the air to avoid Lucy's flailing. The dove then landed right on Lucy's shoulder. She tensed up, fearing the dove would peck at her, but the bird simply just sat still on her shoulder. After a while Lucy was able to relax her arms and let the dove stay on her shoulder. Slowly she stood up, being careful not to harm the dove.

_"It seems to be asleep," _she thought, trying not to wake it, _"I wonder…." _

She slowly moved her hand to the dove's head. Just about when she was about to touch it, the dove shot its eyes open. For a moment the two of them stared at each other, with Lucy's hand outstretched to the bird. Then ever so slightly, the dove moved its head to Lucy's outstretched hand. Lucy giggled as she stroked the dove's head to its wings.

"Looks like we're going to be stuck here for a while, huh?" she asked the dove.

The dove shook its feathers in reply. "You probably don't know what I'm talking about, do you?" she said to the dove. The bird looked at her with its big eyes. Lucy slowly sank back down to the floor once again.

"You know, I could use a friend to take care of." She muttered to herself, "What do you think?" she asked, turning to the dove.

"Coo," the dove replied.

Lucy smiled. "It's settled then. I'm going to take care of you. Oh, but what's you're name?"

The dove simply shook its head.

"Well since you don't have a name, I'll name you. I'll call you..." Lucy paused thinking, "...I think I'm going to call you...Sophie. It's the name of the last queen that ruled the kingdom of Maic. What do you think?"

The bird flapped its wings, making Lucy jump. Realizing that the dove was only happy, she giggled in reply as the bird came closer to her. In return Lucy pulled the bird close to give it a warm hug.

"It's settled then." she happily responded. The only thought she had now was to get some sleep. Slowly she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep; with the dove, Sophie, cuddled up next to her.  
>Just at that time, the light bulb above went out completely.<p>

**A/N**: And that's the end of the prologue. Don't worry...I will introduce Ralph and the rest of the group in the next chapter. Please leave a review, I would really love to hear feedback. Until the next chapter!


	2. Chapter 1: The Outcast

**A/N: **And here is Chapter 1! Please leave feedback, I would love to hear how I did.

**Disclaimer**: Do not own rights to Wreck-It Ralph, those rights belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond between Two Hearts  
>Chapter 1: The Outcast of Game Central Station<p>

There was a great bustle in Game Central Station that day. It was almost time for what was called "The Biggest Dance Dance Revolution Ever." It wasn't just the usual bustling of the regulars that traveled from portal to portal, almost the whole arcade was in a bustle to sneak a peek or go inside to join the party. It just so happened that on the same day as the anniversary of DDR, it was also the anniversary of the out of order game "Shining Magic." And yet… no one knew about this game for 9 years.  
>The only one, who did care, was a mysterious cloaked figure that was in Game Central Station every day. No one really knew much about this person, aside from the rumors that she was exiled from her own game for disobeying the rule of talking to the players, or that she was a ghost of the game Shining Magic, and was out to get revenge for those that treated her poorly. However, she knew that these stories were not true. The girl flipped the hood off of her head, looking curiously at the crowd of people.<p>

"That's strange Sophie…I've never seen this many people at this time of night…" she whispered to her companion, a white dove that had been by her side ever since this girl appeared.

"Coo?" Sophie replied questioningly.

"I know Soph, I'm not sure what's going on either."

She sighed in defeat as she carefully walked over to a bench a few feet away. She sat down, hugging her legs and put her head on top of her knees. For a moment the station seemed so quiet to her. _"I'm all alone."_ Suddenly she gasped, coming back to the scene of the bustling crowd of people. A sudden jolt of pain went through her body, mostly from the left arm hidden within her dark cloak. The girl clamped her right hand to her  
>left arm, beads of sweat rolling down her face.<p>

_"Ow…it's hurting more today than usual. But why…."_

The pain in her arm swelled even more as the girl tried to figure out why her arm was suddenly acting up. Slowly, she removed the cloak from her arm, revealing a blackened arm. Looking closer, she could tell there were dark scars and scratches that were there since stepping through the portal to GCS. She did not know how to explain why she got this wound, but in spite of that she was surprised that the wound had not managed to slowly consume her. In the shining light, the blackness on her arm swelled up even worse than it did before. The girl's beaded sweat now increased twice as much. She started to shake at the unbearable pain that she somehow seemed to endure. Sophie noticed the pain in the girl's face and hopped from her shoulder, fluttering in the air to look more closely at the wound.

"Coo! Coo!" The bird cried out.

The girl looked up at her friend, then seeing that the dove was not looking at her, she turned in the direction of where the bird was looking. She realized that Sophie was looking right at a portal entrance. Not the Dance Dance Revolution that was holding one of the biggest parties ever, but the one entrance that she dared not go into. The girl stamped her feet on the floor, making a large THUNK. Slowly she got to her feet and turned to the entrance that read Fix-It-Felix Jr. She looked at Sophie quizzically.

"You want me to go to that game?" she asked.

Sophie fluttered back down on her shoulder, turning to look at the girl's face. She nodded her head once in reply. The girl took a look at her feathery companion, and then back at the Fix-It-Felix Jr. entrance.

"Are you sure…?"

The bird nodded its head once again. She took a real deep breath, and took a step back. Then, something inside her was pulling at her. She realized that this something was making her feet move forward, making her move forward. She could feel her chest heaving with deep breaths, her feet gone heavy with every step she took. Inside she heard voices saying: _"What are you thinking?! You don't even know who is beyond that gate. Why even bother?! They will only encourage your sadness and despair."_

Regardless of those voices, the girl kept moving forward. She had to know what was there. She had to find out why she was pressing forward despite her will to not go. She had to know…_had to_….

She stopped, realizing she was standing right in front of the entrance. She sucked in a gasp, and gulped. There she was, a few steps away from entering the one game she never had been inside, and yet she was hesitating to go in. It was all so confusing to her as if she was just plugged in for the first time. The girl took a few steps away from the entrance.

_"Think…what would my sister do…?"_

Inside the girl's entire being was trying to force her to move, but her feet were firmly planted on the ground, unhinged. Somehow she knew that she must find what is making her feel this way.

_"I need to know… but I'm scared to… what if… what if I wrong the game itself?"_

She could not bear herself to go inside, taking more steps back from the entrance. Slowly her breaths were returning to normal and this force had suddenly dissipated away as if nothing had changed. The girl turned to stare at the DDR entrance, then remembered that there was a party going on. Putting her hood of her cloak back on her head, she moved forward until she reached the front of the entrance. The dove suddenly flew off and away, leaving the girl standing alone at the gate. Finally, moving ever so slowly, she walked through the entrance of DDR.

The party was even more triumphant than the DDR gamers could have imagined. Many characters from so many different games wanted some of the action going on at the anniversary party of Dance Dance Revolution. _Pac-Man, Frogger, Super Mario Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog, Tappers, Street Fighter_, and so many others came to this once-in-a-lifetime party.  
>One person that didn't seem thrilled to be here was the wrecking bad guy from Fix-It-Felix Jr. named Wreck-It-Ralph. He towered over everyone as all of the characters waited in line to get into the party.<p>

"This is ridiculous!" Ralph shouted loudly, "Why am I even going to this party with you guys?!"

"You know why, Stinkbrain." said Vanellope, a tiny girl who came from a game called Sugar Rush. She sat atop of Ralph's broad shoulders, looking over the whole crowd that stood waiting in line.

"It seems kind of hopeless doing this kid, you know it won't work." Ralph scowled, glowering at the huge crowd.

"Well I think it is just a great idea, Vanellope!" replied Felix, who Ralph could barely see below from the huge bustling crowd. The only way Ralph could tell he was there was to look where his wife, Sgt. Calhoun from the game Hero's Duty, was standing. Looking at Calhoun, Ralph noticed that she did not seem to be happy to be here either.

_"Vanellope no doubt must have forced her to come along too…typical."_ He quietly assumed.

Suddenly the huge line that was suddenly there before was very quickly moving into the DDR portal. Ralph, struck by surprising shock, almost lost his balance as the crowd moved forward.

"Whoa Ralph, WATCH IT!" Vanellope yelped, waving her hands to gain balance as Ralph tried to steady himself from the pushing and shoving of the cluster of people.

"Sometimes you can be brainless Ralph." Calhoun retorted.

"Now come on hon." Felix sweetly replied, "It's Ralph's first time trying to find a date."

Calhoun gave a huge grunt of resignation, and managed to give Felix a little smile. Ralph rolled his eyes, looking again at the crowd cluster headed inside.

"Well…" he said turning to his friends, "Let's get this over with."

Carefully Ralph made his way through the crowd, with Vanellope sitting safely atop of his shoulders and the Fix-It couple following behind him. The first time that he heard about the party, he was reluctant to even show his face in Game Central Station. But Vanellope had to coax him into it saying that _"you might find someone special there, maybe a new __**'girlfriend'**__."_ Ralph did feel alone lately, after attending the wedding of Fix-It-Felix and Calhoun. He had felt that there was no one for him. Even after saving Sugar Rush from the evil virus that was King Candy (aka Turbo); there were still people that hated him because he was a bad guy.  
>Even so, apparently this wasn't stopping Vanellope from trying to help him find someone that she labeled would be "The One." He ruffed out a huge sigh as he walked into the portal that leads to the DDR game. As he got into the train that led to the party, Ralph thought he caught a glimpse of a cloaked hooded figure coming toward the entrance to DDR. Before he could get a closer look, the train lurched suddenly into darkness, the light from Game Central Station disappearing behind him. For a moment Ralph just sat there, looking back unblinking. Then he shook his head and turned to face the nightmare that lay ahead of him at the DDR party.<p> 


	3. Chapter 2: The Party

**A/N**: Here is Chapter 2! I hope you guys enjoy this chapter. Please read and review, I would always like helpful feedback.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the rights to Wreck-It Ralph. The rights belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond between Two Hearts

Chapter 2: The Party

She was always afraid of the dark, ever since she had walked into Game Central. Never did she go into any game with a dark tunnel. Yet as the girl looked into the tunnel that lead to the DDR party, she had the strangest feeling that she herself did not know she had. It was the sense of curiosity, and an unknown feeling welling strongly inside her. It overpowered her fear so much, that somehow she was not taken aback when she walked into the anteroom where the DDR train was, got on it and rode it to the party that lay ahead.

_"I wish Sophie was with me…"_ was all the girl could worry about as the train sped ahead to the entrance of DDR.

As soon as the train stopped, she immediately ran out and knelt down to catch her breath. She was so caught up with her curiosity that she did not realize her fear of the dark. For what seemed like a minute the girl just knelt on the ground breathing heavily. Suddenly she perked her ears to hear muffled music coming from behind the door into DDR. Slowly she rose to her feet, clutching on to her bearings as she stared at the door in front of her. The train long gone now, she had no choice but to go inside.  
>The door seemed so far away to her that she thought there was still a long way to go. But once she reached the entrance, it had only taken her a few seconds to reach it. <em>She knew that if she opened that door, everyone would want her gone and nothing would change the way things are<em>. Voices rang loud inside the girl's mind, mostly screaming the same thought: _Get out of Here!_ Yet one voice in the back of her mind was saying something that made her open the door into the bright lights of the party…

_What are you waiting for?_  
>0 - 0 - 0 - 0<br>"HEY RALPH! Are you in there?! WAKE UP!"

Ralph quickly jerked his head up from the table at the shrill yell of Vanellope's voice.

"I'M UP, I'M UP!" he shouted too loudly.

Looking around he saw that no one was looking (of course the blare of the music drowned out his overpowering voice). _"Whew… no one heard me."_ Ralph sighed with relief, and then faced Vanellope.

"What's the big idea, kid!" he hissed, "I was trying to block out that loud music stinging my ears!"

"Well _sorry_ for waking you up from your nap!" Vanellope snapped back, "But remember that we came here to get you out socializing with people, not catching up on naptime!"

Ralph blew a raspberry to the side. "Come on kid, is anyone here in this room going to talk to me just because I'm trying to find a date?! Plus you may have not yet noticed, I'm a _bad guy_. Bad guys don't get dates with girls."

"Well this bad guy will." Calhoun replied pointing at Ralph, "You'll never know if you will get one unless you _try_."

Ralph opened his mouth in protest, but did not say anything. Calhoun was right; he _had_ to try sooner or later. Putting one of his huge hands under his chin, he scowled quietly as he watched the DDR dancers on the dance floor. He really didn't care about dancing, nor was he really good at it. Once at one of Felix's parties he tried to dance, but his fumbling about almost took down the whole penthouse. Ralph was so embarrassed that he promised himself never to try dancing again. As he looked out now from the very huge table that Ralph and his friends were sitting at, he was starting to think that his promise might be broken. All of his friends, including Felix, were expecting him to at least find one person to talk to tonight, and that might mean going on the dance floor and making a fool of him: _again_.  
>At that time, he found himself looking at the entrance, wanting so desperately to get out of this nightmare. To his surprise the door suddenly opened, making him flinch. As soon as Ralph caught his eyes on the person that came through the door, Ralph thought that this night was not going to be as bad as he thought.<br>0 - 0 - 0 - 0  
>From the first moment the girl walked through the door the first thing she realized was the blaring lights. She shielded her eyes, squinting in the blinding light as she stepped inside. Once her eyes adjusted, she stared out in awe. In the brightly lit room that was DDR, hundreds of characters were sitting, standing, or dancing on the dance floor. For a minute she just stood there dumbfounded by the scene before her. Then something loud came screaming in her ears. She quickly raised her hands to plug her ears from whatever the noise was. Squeezing her eyes shut, the girl tried to get the loud music out of her head, but it would never go away. Finally, she let herself slowly open her eyes and let her hands fall to her sides.<p>

_"Well, so far so good,"_ she assured herself. _"This isn't too bad…."_

She let her feet walk her down the stairs leading to the DDR floor. She pulled her hood down further as she got closer to other characters enjoying themselves. The girl looked around, stopping herself from going any further.

_"I got a bad feeling about this…"_ she inaudibly whispered.

The girl looked over at the bar to see no one had taken any seats. Her eyes widened, _what luck_. She slowly made her way through the crowd and took a seat right at the little glass bar. Exhausted, she lay her head down on the counter, and for a moment everything seemed fine.

"Hello there, miss outcast."

She knew who that voice belonged to, even with the loud music still ringing in her ears. She did not move.

"Hello Archer," she whispered, "nice to see you again."

"It's not nice to see you though: _Lucy_." The voice of Archer replied coldly.

Fear started to well up inside her, as she sat there. Slowly, Lucy raised her head from the counter and turned.  
>0 - 0 - 0 - 0<br>Ever since the hooded figure walked in the party, Ralph sat up straighter than he ever did. And by the looks of his friends gave him, they had noticed his strange behavior as well.

"Well my word," Felix managed to say after one minute of silence, "I've never seen this one here in DDR before. I don't think I've ever seen this person at all."

"You said it, I've been here for more than a newly plugged in game and I've never seen someone like that." Vanellope uttered in awe.

Ralph looked down at his little friend, who became his best friend ever since game jumping into Sugar Rush. There was no doubt that she did not know this hooded person, even though Vanellope knew about all of the characters in the arcade. Looking back up, he noticed that the person made their way down the steps slowly, descending into the crowd of dancing characters below. For a few seconds Ralph lost sight of the person, there was just way to many people to tell where this mysterious person went to. Then, he caught movement of a black trail moving to the little glass bar. Ralph never kept his eyes off of the figure.

"I think someone is caught in a tide." Vanellope said slyly, punching Ralph lightly on the arm.

"Hey I-I'm not caught in a tide-" Ralph stammered.

"Oh Ralph my brother, I believe you are." Felix said cutting him off.

A sudden noise snapped Ralph back to the glass bar. Standing behind the hooded person was none other than Archer, a tall man who looked like a fighter with the body he had, but not quite. He was in the new game Litwak plugged in a few weeks ago; an arching game where Archer was the main character. _Flying Arrows_ was the name of the game. The goal of the game was to get more points than your opponent. Knowing Archer, he might do something unforgivable.

"Hello there, miss outcast."

At that moment Ralph realized that the person sitting at the bar was none other than a _girl_. She was a real live girl. He could not believe it. Not knowing if it was his own will or something inside him going out of control, Ralph found himself getting up suddenly from his seat and walking straight at the bar. His friends were yelling something at him, but his ears were full of anger that was starting to boil up to hear what they were saying.  
>All he knew was that he had to get to her.<br>0 - 0 - 0 - 0  
>Lucy's heart stopped as she looked at the face of Archer, who seemed to be bigger that she thought.<p>

"So…what do you want?" she said slowly.

A big grin spread across Archer's face. Lucy's felt her heart go up her throat.

_"A grin like that…it must mean…."_

"You know what I want you to do…" Archer sternly replied, "…you know you're not welcome here."

"I know that."

The grin that was on Archer's face had slowly disappeared. Lucy knew that something was about to happen. For when she looked around, many of the characters that were dancing or standing talking had formed a group around them. Pulling her hood down even lower, Lucy walked a few careful steps toward Archer. _There was no getting out of this fight_. Trying to take the advantage, Lucy grabbed Archer's shirt and pulled him closer than his comfort. She soon realized that a few seconds later it was a bad idea. Archer grabbed the front of her cloak and raised her up in the air. She gave a little yelp as her feet left the colored tiles of the floor. Then Lucy realized that the colored tiles were not below her feet, but aiming straight at her head. Archer had swung Lucy in an arch going from the floor to the ceiling, all the way down to the floor again.  
>Her head exploded with pain as she hit the glass floor with such force. For a moment she couldn't get her vision straight. A warm trickle came down the back of her head, in which Lucy realized was blood. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. Lucy flung her hand quickly up to her head, trying to stop the bleeding. Her short-timed impaired vision and hearing made the world around her fuzzy. Suddenly there were huge, loud footsteps and then…<p>

**CRASH!**

Lucy heard something smash into the floor moments after she did.

_"What in the world…?"_

Once she knew her vision was clearing, Lucy opened her eyes, and gasped.  
>There, standing protectively in front of her, was a big pair of feet.<br>0 - 0 - 0 - 0  
>Standing in the crowd of onlookers, Ralph watched as the girl was flung off her feet by Archer and came plummeting down hard to the ground. His heart flew up into his throat, trying to grasp the situation. The anger that had been boiling up a few minutes before was about to reach its breaking point. But what Archer said next made Ralph mad:<p>

"Not so tough now, are you? You're just a weak coward and that's all you'll ever be."

Inside something just snapped. He ended up shouting out: "HEY! Leave Her ALONE!" Before he knew it, Ralph charged right through the crowd, fists raised high. In a single intense moment, Ralph's huge fist crashed Archer into the ground.

**CRASH!**

All of the spectators gasped in horror as the huge crash echoed the small room. Ralph lifted his hand from the crushed glass floor, which was now a huge crater. Ralph looked back to see that the girl was rubbing the back of her head, which was trickling blood. The arm she was using to rub her head with was all bruised up. A sudden rustle from the crater made him snapped his head back to the now shaken Archer emerging from the huge crater Ralph had created. Without thinking, Ralph stood in front of the girl protectively and raised his fists, ready for a fight. But the man did not move.  
>Archer only just stared right past him, right to the girl behind him. His look was menacing, but not as well as to recover from Ralph's hit and come punching back. As sudden as the fight started, it ended. Archer ended up storming out of DDR with his head held high, but with his anger boiling up. The spectators viewing the fight had all since forgotten about it, and returned to their regular dancing or standing around talking; as if nothing had happened.<br>Seeing the fight was over and done, Ralph unclenched his fists slowly, letting his hands fall to the side. He realized that his cheeks were starting to turn red, but managed to keep it down.

"Um…are you…are you okay?" he stammered.

But when he turned around, the girl was gone. Panic swept over him as he searched the crowd for any signs of the girl with a hooded cloak. But there was now too many people to tell where she was. Finally, Ralph hung his head, putting his hands to his face and rubbing down.

"RALPH!" came out a shrill cry.

Ralph turned to see that Vanellope was making her way through the crowd. He knelt down so that Vanellope could climb up his arm right on to his shoulder.

"Thank goodness!" spoke the concerned voice of Felix as he and Calhoun made their way behind Vanellope. "We thought you would get pummeled out there."

"Yeah but…turns out he was shaken from that sudden outburst I did." Ralph glumly replied.

Ralph then noticed Calhoun looking around. "So where is that hooded girl that you made google-eyes at?" she finally asked.

Ralph felt his cheeks warm up again. "How should I know!" he blurted aloud, "One minute she was behind me, and the next thing she was gone when I turned to see if she was okay!"  
>Vanellope furrowed her brow and gave Ralph a confused look.<p>

"Look guys, I know that this is all coming at you at once," Ralph began, "but I think…I think I need to get out of this place. Maybe she's at the station."

All three of his friends stared at one another, trying to decide if Ralph should go find the so called _mystery girl_, or have him stay to find someone else. Finally, they looked up at Ralph (Vanellope looking down at him) they all gave a short nod. Carefully Ralph plucked Vanellope off his shoulder and gently set her down next to Felix. Before Vanellope could have the chance to say goodbye, Ralph was already out the door heading to Game Central Station.

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**A/N**: And that's Chapter 2! Next chapter I will move the plot some more with what happens when Ralph and Lucy finally meet! As for the fight scene, I made it short and sweet on purpose because there's a lot more conflict that going to happen later on between those two fellas. Please review, I always would love to hear feedback!


	4. Chapter 3: Something In The Air

**A/N**: And...here is Chapter 3! I hope that I can upload more chapters faster in the future, but sometimes it's hard to write. Please read and review, I would love to hear feedback.

**Disclaimer**: Wreck-It Ralph and its characters belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 3: Something In The Air…

Archer watched the big bad guy go as he was sitting attending to his wound. He managed to get a huge bruise on his face, especially his nose. Some of the characters came to see if he was okay, or gave him an icy glass to stop the swelling. Archer was in aching pain all over, all from the sheer force of being pummeled to the ground.

"Humph." He grumbled, pushing the icy glass to his face, "That brainless giant has no idea who he's messing with…"

"Archer, are you alright buddy?" came the sound of his _Flying Arrows_ friend Garran; a short little boy who's programmed backstory was about him being an orphan, but was rescued and trained by Archer in the sport of archery. He was always concerned about Archer's health, but Archer was too angry to be soft to him.

"NO I'M NOT!" Archer yelled at Garran, who flinched and took a step back. Seeing as he was attracting attention from the crowd of dancers, Archer cleared his throat, and then slowly leaned in closer to Garran.

"I'm not okay because some giant ape interfered with what was to be a fight between me and that coward of a girl." He whispered menacingly. For a moment Garran remained silent, taking it all in.

"But…" he finally replied, "…why didn't you fight back? Surely you could have taken him head on and still come out in one piece."

Archer lowered his gaze, knowing how confident his student was at his strength against anyone, then quietly said: "Did you know who that giant was that hit me?! That was _Wreck-It-Ralph_. The look on his face was pure anger." Archer looked around to see the gamers went back to their dancing, "And when you see him angry when you're in his way, you know you don't want to mess with him."

"Good point." Garran replied, "But what about the girl, _Lucy_."

Suddenly Garran flinched, finding him being pulled in too close to Archer. "The next time I see that weak coward," Archer whispered intensely, "I'm going to make sure she had never set foot outside her game."

Tears came welling up in Lucy's eyes as she made her way out of the DDR party, into the train, and finally running down the stairs into Game Central Station. Slowing down to a brisk walk, Lucy started to cry out loud; _no one was there to listen anyway_. The tears she held back came rushing rapidly out of her eyes. After a full few minutes the tears stopped, and Lucy then opened her eyes to see her hands were wet, as well as her cloak, stained with tears. She suddenly heard the flapping sound of wings in the still silence.

Sophie flew down from her perch that was on one of the windows in GCS, seeing something was wrong with Lucy. Landing on her shoulder, the bird stared at her with big, concerning eyes.

"Hi Soph…" Lucy said softly. The bird did not move.

Lucy looked ahead to see she was still walking briskly forward, about to run into the wall at her place in GCS where she called home. She adjusted to walking slowly avoiding hitting the wall in front of her. A sad, lonely sigh came out from her, echoing the walls and reverberating around her.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" Lucy yelled out suddenly. Sophie jumped startled from Lucy's shoulder and flew a few feet up from her.

Lucy closed her eyes, her eyes starting to get tears once again. "What have I done?" she shouted, softer this time.

Opening her eyes, she started to notice that something seemed wrong in the now empty, dim station.  
>She looked around to find Sophie, concern filling her face.<p>

"Hey Sophie, where are you? Come down! Something's wrong!"

She then heard the flapping of wings as Sophie slowly flew down to land on her shoulder. Lucy leaned her head to the bird, trying to comfort Sophie's constant fear in her eyes. A sudden creak made Lucy stop in her tracks, long since she stopped walking. Turning her head slowly, Lucy looked to see what made the soft creaking noise. Her eyes widened. The sound came from something moving forward in the distance. Yet she couldn't see what that thing was.

_"A shadow…?"_ she asked herself.

The thing now seemed to have stopped in its tracks, as if it had a certain goal in mind. _As if it was trying to find something._ Lucy's heart stopped as she tried to contain a short yelp trying to escape her lips. There was no question, the thing standing before Lucy was looking for _her_. Without thinking in swift motion, she found herself flinging behind one of the benches, Sophie flying away, trying to keep out of sight of this thing that was slowly making its way towards her hiding place.

The anticipation to find the girl resonated in his mind as Ralph made his way to Game Central Station. In a part of his mind Ralph was sure to find the girl still there, but in another he started to think that she had disappeared forever, never to be seen again. He hoped that wouldn't be true. The train slowly made its last few stretches to the end of the DDR portal, each movement weighing Ralph down with more anticipation to be out of the train. Finally the train at last came to a complete stop, with Ralph running straight out and down the steps to Game Central.

As he approached the end of the gateway, Ralph had reduced his run to a slow walk. For some reason he could not go any faster than he already was. _"If she is real, then what is she like? What if she's a bad guy that doesn't care about others? No…. There's no time to doubt, I have to get to her. I have to know who she…"_

A loud scream interrupted his train of thought. Panic spread across his face, as he now started to run again into GCS, his breath exploding with sudden, rapid gasps. When he finally ran through the gateway into the station, a feeling deep down inside told him that something was wrong. _Very wrong_. The station was always full of life, even if it was only filled with a few characters and the SPs guarding the gates. But when he looked out onto the vast opening that was GCS, there was absolutely no life anywhere. It was much dimmer than he had ever seen it before.

"Where is everyone?" he wondered. Then he realized that he already knew the answer. "Ah come on genius! They're all at the party."

Suddenly he heard a flapping sound coming from the right side of the station. He didn't know where, but Ralph knew that he heard something. Slowly he turned to the right. His eyes fixed on a silhouette of a figure just standing there.

_"Who is…?"_

But when he took a step closer, the figure suddenly was gone. _Like the person had disappeared into thin air._ Ralph furrowed his brow in confusion; wondering what could have been standing there just a moment ago, then wasn't there anymore. Taking a deep breath, he straightened up, and then started walking toward the far right bench.

As the figure drew closer, Lucy heard that the footsteps were not of an ordinary person's feet. The steps it made were very loud, and sounded as if it was taking huge steps. The sinking feeling she had before became even deeper.

"What do I do? I can't fight like this, I'm a mess!"

Lucy frantically tried to figure out what in the world she planned to do. _"I can't just charge out in a full frontal attack. By the way this…THING… is sounding, it's too big to take on by myself."_

"And I can't just run away either; or else this big thing will come chasing after me. I wouldn't want that to happen, this thing would probably be too fast. The only thing I can do is…is…

…Hide."

As the word came out of her mouth, there came another sound. Lucy strained her ears, trying to listen closely to the new sound.

_"Is that…more footsteps? No…it doesn't sound like footsteps, more like…a voice."_

"Hello…i-is anyone…a-anybody…anybody here?" the voice called out.

Lucy was too terrified to move. "This _thing_ had a _voice_. _But, shadows don't have voices…_

Do they?"

Slowly, Lucy rose from behind the bench and turned.

A pair of hazel eyes stared back at her.

Ralph's uneasiness started to grow.

_"I've never seen the station so empty before, so…dark."_

But Ralph did not have time to worry about that right now. He had to know if the girl was okay; and if in fact he had just seen her silhouette on the right side of Game Central. With his courage waning with each step he took, Ralph somehow managed to squeak out one sentence.

"Hello…i-is anyone…a-anybody…anybody here?"

In the corner of his eye, he saw a slight movement coming from the bench at the end. Doing the best he can to keep quiet; Ralph cautiously made his way over to the far bench. He had just reached the back of it, when something suddenly popped out from behind the bench.

A pair of golden eyes stared back at him.

For what seemed like a lifetime, Ralph stared at those eyes in silence. Then he caught a glimpse of fear in them, and without warning, the girl he was desperately looking for started to loudly scream.

The first instinct Lucy felt as she stared at those brown eyes was to fight back. But stricken with terror, instead she screamed as loud as her lungs could handle. The thing in front of her covered its ears as soon as her scream loudly came out. She could not see what happened next, but in an instant her scream ceased to a muffled squeak. Still stricken with fear, Lucy looked down to see something humongous covering her mouth. At first she thought it was a cloth that was put around her mouth, but as she looked closer she realized: it was a hand.

_"Who is this thing?"_ she pondered in her mind, trying to struggle out of its tight grip on her.

"Hey, calm down would you? I'm not going to hurt you!" a familiar voice said in the darkness.

Lucy stopped struggling: _"I know that voice…"_

Ralph's ears were ringing as the girl's scream got louder and louder. Finally, after trying to block out the agonizing sound, Ralph jumped straight over the girl's head and firmly clasped his huge wrecking hand over her mouth. She froze for a few seconds as he tightened his other hand around her little body, being careful not to harm her.

"Hey, calm down would you? I'm not going to hurt you!" he explained firmly.

The girl squirming in his arms suddenly stopped, and stood perfectly still.

"Look…" Ralph continued, "I am about as scared and surprised as you are, but you've got to calm down. You could scare someone screaming like that."

She did not move. Ralph was sure that she would run away if by the chance he'd let go.

"Listen I'm going to let go of you, but you must promise not to run away, okay?"

After a long pause, he saw the girl slowly nod her head. Ralph let out a nervous sigh.

"Alright then." He replied, slowly letting go of the girl and stepping back. When she turned around to face him, Ralph noticed she was oddly troubled by the look she gave him. He was about to ask what was wrong, when a horrible growl came from the other side of the station.

After hearing what the thing had to say, Lucy pondered over if she should _trust it_. Then something cold made her shiver, something _very_ cold. At first she thought it was the thing that was holding her tightly. Then from out of nowhere, came a feeling of warmth. Looking around with her eyes, Lucy didn't see anything else. _Wait…_

She looked back up, realizing that the warmth was coming from the one that was holding her. In her mind she started to worry; something was out there, an _evil entity_. Knowing now that she could trust this thing that might be a person, Lucy slowly nodded her head.

_"I hope I know what I'm doing."_ Cautiously, it loosened its grip over her mouth and let go of her body. She gave a quiet gasp so that it couldn't hear her. When she was sure that she was okay, Lucy turned to face whoever was behind her.

It was then that a low, menacing growl shattered the silence of the station. Lucy jerked her head suddenly, realizing what waited behind her. What she and the thing behind her saw, was a looming darkness with no shape or form, coming right at them with haste. In one seemingly long second, Lucy grabbed the thing by the hand and jerked the person and herself out of the way just in time. They fell to the ground as the dark entity vanished into thin air.

Silence followed as the two of them lay flat on the floor. Slowly, they both sat up looking to where the thing had just disappeared.

"What was that thing?" Lucy turned and saw the person looking at her. She then realized the question was directed to her.

"U-uh…" she stammered bashfully.

The person lowered its eyes and looked away, apparently lost in thought. "THAT IS…I mean…" she blurted out, making the person turn back again surprised. Lucy took a long breath.

"It's a shadow." She finally answered, "It's a darkness that is made of _pure evil_."

She found herself looking closer at the person's face; she noticed that it was in fact a person; a _guy_. That's when she realized it seemed brighter in here that a few moments ago. She could clearly _see him_. There was another pause of silence as she stared silently at him, taking in what was in front of her. He was a rather tall person; taller than any she had seen. To her he seemed about 9 feet tall, with his broad shoulders bulging out to the sides. He wore large overalls, with one strap seeming to be broken, and two pairs of shirts right under them. But was mostly intrigued Lucy was his face. His big brown eyes mesmerized Lucy, and his expression seemed to be very blank. She noticed that when she looked at his face for the first time, his cheeks have turned a bit red, as if he was slightly embarrassed.

_"I wonder…could he be that guy who had…saved me?"_

For the first time, Ralph could actually see what she looked like. After seeing the thing that had stricken him with horror, as it was charging towards them, he was suddenly pulled down by her onto the ground with such force; that it shook his teeth from the inside at the sudden impact. In the process, the girl's hood had fallen off her head, though he realized that she didn't know it had fallen off because she was distracted by who was in front of her: _him_. But as she was looking at him, he couldn't help but notice the girl's features as well. The cloak still covered her body, but her face was as clear as daylight. Her hair was a delicate light brown that covered some of her face; mostly her left eye. Her skin was a very delicate pink, and her eyes were an odd color of a deep gold.

A moment ago he had asked the girl what that thing _was_ that attacked them. She was hesitant to reply, so Ralph was about to look where it was again, when she had said something that made him jump and turn back to her, realizing then he was looking, truly, at her.

His cheeks had heated to a faded red. Ralph hadn't noticed until the girl gave him a curious look. He quickly fought down the redness in his cheeks and cleared his throat.

"So…uh…w-what's your name?"

Now the girl gave him a quizzical look. "My name?" she answered softly.

Ralph now was trying to fight the hot blood coming back to his cheeks. "Yeah, your name." he said as calmly as he could.

The girl first looked at him quizzically again, but then she gave him a bashful expression, looking downward more to his big bare feet.

"No one has asked me my name before." She faintly responded.

There was yet another silence, Ralph had noticed. He wanted to just run away, back to his little shack in Fix-It-Felix Jr., but he stayed; he still stayed: because of _her_.

"Well..." he shyly started, rubbing one of his huge hands on the back of his neck, "…my name is…uh…_Wreck-It-Ralph_…b-but you can call me Ralph if you like!" he blurted out loudly.

Ralph realized he had a bright red showing on his cheeks. He was relieved when he saw that she wasn't looking at him, but still looking at the floor. Giving up all hope in his mind, Ralph carefully got to his feet. He was about to walk away, when he heard the smallest sound from behind him.

_"Lucy…"_

He slowly turned around, to see that the girl was on her feet, staring right at him. Ralph stared back, dumbfounded.

"My name is Lucy." she replied again a little louder.

Ralph just stood there, looking at the tiny girl. He tried to say something, anything that could respond to her, but nothing came out.

_"Come on Ralph…say something! Don't leave her hanging!"_ his mind screamed.

"It's very nice to meet you, Wreck-It-Ralph." Lucy said expectantly.

Ralph blinked out of his daze, "Oh! It's…very nice to meet you too…um…"

"Lucy." she finished.

"Yeah right, Lucy. It's nice to meet you."

For the first time, Ralph saw a little smile come from her lips.

**A/N**: Sooo... yep there's something happening here. And I'm excited to see what happens next! Please leave a review and tell me what you think.


	5. Chapter 4: An Unexpected Friend

**A/N**: This chapter took me so long to write, but here it is, Chapter 4! I personally like this chapter. Please read and review, feedback is much appreciated.

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the rights to Wreck-It-Ralph, the rights belong to Disney.

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 4

An Unexpected Friend

She could not believe that she had so much courage inside. The words just sort of came out, one at a time, as she told him her name. She smiled back at him when he stuttered back her name. When Lucy smiled she thought that the very large person standing before her would think her weird. But when she looked at the smile on the giant's face, Lucy thought that something had sparked; as though she felt something come alive again after the nine long years of loneliness and solitude.

For a moment the two of them stood there, staring at each other not knowing what to do. Then Lucy found herself taking a step forward towards him, forgetting the knotting fear that had welled up inside her.

"What are you?" she asked him nervously.

"Well..." he started, "...I'm a game character just like you, I suppose."

"A game character?" Lucy asked confusingly.

"Yeah, you know... the people that are inside the game...that live in the arcade. You know, people like _us_."

Lucy stared dumbfoundedly at him taking in the words she had heard. "So, um... Ralph right?"

The giant nodded his head slowly.

"You...were at the party right...at DDR?"

He nodded again not saying a word.

"Were you...I mean when I was in that fight...did you...?"

Lucy found that she could not finish her sentence, and that her head was slowly sinking downward. _Maybe this was not the right guy...was I wrong?_

"Yes I did."

Startled Lucy slowly raised her head again to find that he had knelt down to her eye level, and apparently had gotten closer to her. He smiled gently at her his cheeks giving off a red glow. _"I wonder why he does that?" _Lucy wondered.

Looking at his soft brown eyes she realized that no words could give her the answer: she knew it was this guy, _Ralph_, that saved her.

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Ralph felt his heart pounding the whole time as they exchanged warm glances at each other. It took him a great amount of energy to keep back the blood flowing to his cheeks, but he could not contain all of it. As he knelt down to the girl's level, Ralph noticed that she was looking rather strangely at him.

"What are you doing?" she finally asked, her big eyes blinking.

Ralph gave a confusing look, for he did not know what she was talking about.

"Your face..." she said, suddenly putting her face closer to his. Ralph could barely contain the red in his cheeks now.

"Um...w-what about it?" he replied weakly trying to control himself from being this close to her.

She blinked again and stared at him, until she cautiously moved back from his face. Relief went through his mind as she backed away from him.

"Sorry...I didn't mean to get so close but...your cheeks were red." she apologetically explained.

"Oh, this? It's alright really, you don't have to apologize." he quickly replied, "It's just...a little warm in here that's all."

Lucy's curious eyes did not waver. She again gave a warm smile back at him, a relieved expression crossing her face. Ralph smiled back, putting his hand on the back of his head.

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"So, anyways..." he continued after some silence, "...I just wanted to see if you were hurt at all, I mean the way that guy threw you..." he shuddered to think about that fight.

"Well..." Lucy then remembered the pain from being thrown so hard from the fight. Her hand flew up to the back of her head, where she remembered it was bleeding. But when she felt her head, there was no more sign of trickling blood anywhere. _I guess it healed up on its own._

"Oh, your arm! It's all bruised up." Ralph exclaimed worriedly.

Lucy looked down at the arm she used. He was right, it was all bruised up. _"Must have happened when Archer grabbed me."_ Lucy thought. She looked at Ralph and saw that he extended his big hand out to her.

"Here, give me your arm."

Lucy shook her head and cradled her arm away from his hand. "You're not going to do something bad are you?" she asked.

"No of course not." he responded gently, "The only thing you need to worry about me is losing my temper. So please...give me your arm. Trust me."

Lucy's mind was swirling with uncertainty, but somehow she knew that he was telling the truth. Her arm slowly reached out to his giant hand, then hesitated. Finally she let him take her arm. She then felt a sudden sensation that she had never felt before: blood boiling in her cheeks.

_RIIPP!_

Lucy looked up to see Ralph holding and wrapping a piece of cloth around her arm.

"Wait, that's from your shirt. You ruined it!"

"Ah, it's alright. My shirt was a mess anyways." Ralph calmly replied.

She looked at him curiously again. _First the cheeks, now his shirt. It was like something weird had taken over him ever since he set eyes on her_. The both of them remained quiet as Lucy's arm was tended to by Ralph. Then Lucy remembered that his hands that were helping her, were in fact, giant hands. She looked closer at the hands, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"Your hands..." she muttered. Ralph looked up at her, but Lucy didn't seem to notice.

"You mean my wrecker hands?" he asked finally.

This time Lucy looked up to see Ralph staring at her, staring at his hands.

"Uh, yeah!" she exclaimed to loudly, "I...well didn't mean to stare, it's just..." She felt her face get extremely warm.

"Just...what?" she heard Ralph ask as she turned away her face.

"Well, there just so...BIG." she quietly muttered.

She felt a sudden tug on her arm, signaling that he had finished wrapping her arm. She raised her arm up to her to see that the cloth from Ralph's shirt was now wrapped tightly around her upper arm, almost up to her shoulder.

"Thanks." she found herself saying to him.

"Um...you-you're welcome." he replied bashfully.

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The girl smiled back at Ralph as she lowered her arm to her side. Her eyes still looked curiously at his big wrecker hands, the hands that he used for wrecking the Niceland building. It was his job after all.

"So, what game are you from? I've never really seen you around before." Ralph asked her.

Ralph regretted what he said when Lucy's expression changed from a warm smile to a sad, glum stare. She sank down into the bench that was behind her, lowering her head.

"I'm... not from any game anymore." she whispered glumly.

At first Ralph thought that she was playing. When Lucy looked up though, Ralph felt the red in his cheeks wash away completely. The look in her eyes was serious, he realized that she _meant_ what she said.

"I'm sorry." was his only reply as he sat down next to her.

"No...it's okay." Lucy responded smiling, "It's not anyone's fault but mine..."

Ralph gave her a quizzical look, but Lucy was looking away at him not taking notice.

_"What does she mean...her fault?" _Ralph wondered.

Before he could ask her though, she suddenly recovered from her glumness and was now looking directly at him again with her big eyes wide.

"Heh, look at me, blabbering on about nothing...I want to know about you. So what game are you from?" Lucy asked excitingly.

At first Ralph was taken aback. _No one ever asked him what game he was from, especially a girl for that matter._ Suddenly he recalled what Calhoun had said before: _You won't know unless you try_. Ralph breathed in a huge sigh and for the first time in his life: was trying to talk to a girl.

"Okay here goes... I'm from the game _Fix-It-Felix Jr._ And _Fix-It-Felix Jr._ is a game that has been at Litwak's Arcade for more than 30 years now. The goal of the game is to fix the Niceland building, because that's the name of the game. The main guy is Fix-It-Felix Jr., and he's nice as good guy's go..." Ralph paused, taking another deep breath.

"So...what part do you play?" Lucy asked after a while.

_"You can do this...she has to know who you really are."_

"Well...I'm..." the words were stuck in his throat. Lucy waited in anticipation.

"I'm the _bad guy_." he finished. Panic was spreading all through his nine foot body, waiting for the reply from who he thought to be the kindest girl he had ever met.

_"That's it. I blew it. She's going to say that I'm not the right guy and leave. It's over. I BLEW it."_

He waited for her voice to say it, but instead he was astonished. Instead what he heard was something that he had never thought someone would say at all.

"What's...a bad guy?"

Lucy gave him the most curious look that he had never seen a young girl like her do before. It was the curious look of not a young lady...but a _child_. _He had never seen someone that had the expressions of a child_. _"Then again..." _Ralph contemplated, _"Vanellope would be the only one who would give him looks like that, except she would be begging me to go with her somewhere I don't want to go. Or racing."_

"Ralph?" Lucy's curious voice snapped Ralph back into reality, as he realized she was waiting for his answer.

"You...don't _know_ what a bad guy is?" he asked unsurely.

Lucy shook her head.

"Well...a bad guy's...someone who is not the hero, you know, a villain and...he is supposed to foil the good guy so that...he can get what he wants."

Ralph found it hard to explain his title to her, fearing that she would still get up and leave him, never to see him again so to speak. But Lucy was listening to every word of it without any anger or judgment, but with the same child-like curious eyes that grew wider the further he explained.

Then without realizing it before, Ralph noticed that it was getting late. _Really late_. Quickly he rose to his feet, leaving Lucy with a surprised look.

"It's...it's getting pretty late now a-and I had better get going home now!" he shouted loudly.

Ralph realized that he said that too loudly and look back at Lucy. She didn't seem to mind, instead she gave a small smile.

"Okay." she replied as she also rose to her feet, "I guess you're right, it _is _getting late."

Ralph suddenly felt the blood coming back to his cheeks again, just like before.

"Well, I guess I better be going. Goodbye...Lucy."

He extended a hand out to Lucy for a handshake. She was so small to him, almost like Vanellope was, but Vanellope was only a kid compared to her. Lucy extended her hand and took his. In his grip her little hands were warm and soft as they shook hands. Then with that, Ralph turned and started to walk home.

"RALPH WAIT!"

He jumped as halfway to his gate. He turned back and saw that Lucy was running toward him. He stopped to let her catch up, and when she finally got to him he got down to his knees to see her better.

"When...when can I see you again?" she managed to say out of breath.

Ralph smiled down at the girl, "Tomorrow of course!" he exclaimed, "I have to know more about where you came from. I mean, you didn't give me much to go with."

"And, you've got to tell me more about you too, you know!" she replied happily.

Ralph chuckled, realizing that he also did not tell her much about him either. He heard Lucy giggle softly, probably realizing too that she had to tell him her story.

"Tomorrow it is then." she gleefully responded.

He gave a nod, then carefully got to his feet. He and Lucy both smiled at each other, Ralph taking one last look at her. Then turning he started again to head home.

"Ralph?"

He turned his head to see Lucy's warm smile.

"You know, you're the first person who has ever talked to me ever since I got here." she said warmly, "I think...you're a good friend."

And from that moment, Ralph knew that Lucy was someone special.

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And Lucy knew from when she look at him the first time, to when he waved goodbye as he entered his portal home, that Wreck-It-Ralph was someone special.

Having made it back home on the right side of Game Central Station, Lucy did not care now what had happened at the party, or what had happened between her and Archer. As Lucy wrapped the cloak around her for warmth, she slowly drifted off into a warm slumber. For the first time in 9 years Lucy dreamed happy dreams that night, while in her thoughts only one thing was clearly there:

_"Tomorrow I get to see him again...I get to see Ralph again."_

**A/N**: Chapter 4... right now my favorite chapter that I've written. Oh I said this again! But still this is a good chapter in my opinion. But that's just me, what do you guys think? Reviews are helpful and much appreciated. I'm working on the next chapter now, so it might take a while to finish it, because of me being a novice writer and such. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Will try to update soon.


	6. Chapter 5: The Little Trinket

**A/N**: Well here we go! Down into the first attempt of making a chapter that doesn't have Lucy in it, just the four main characters of Wreck-It Ralph. I hope this turns out well. Reviews are helpful and help me become a better writer.

**Disclaimer:** Disney owns the rights to Wreck-It Ralph and the characters within. My Ocs and Oc games are all owned by me, that's all.

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 5: The Little Trinket

It was very late when Vanellope, Calhoun and Felix arrived back at _Fix-It-Felix Jr._ As soon as the train stopped at the station, Vanellope took off running to find Ralph. The rest of the time they were at the party, Vanellope was expecting Ralph to come back after he suddenly took off. But when the party was over and everyone starting to leave, she began to worry that Ralph had run into some trouble.

"Don't worry Vanellope." Felix had reassured her, "Probably Ralph was too tired to come back. He's probably back home sleeping it off."

Vanellope however was not sure if that was what exactly happened. She had to talk to him before the arcade opened. She had to know if the stinkbrain was okay.

That was the only thing that she could think about as she raced around the game to find him. Finally she stopped over by East Niceland, a section built after Ralph's game jumping adventure; and it was also where he and the Q*Bert gang were residing to this day. She walked over to Ralph's little shack, not an impressive building but Ralph said that it would suit him just fine. Vanellope jumped up to the nearest window of his house and looked in.

_"Not here...where could he be?"_

She was now getting very worried seeing that Ralph was not in fact sleeping inside his house.

Then she heard someone give a big, loud yawn. As she turned around, a big smile came across her little face. She raced towards the huge pile of bricks, the dump, which was where Ralph's original home was when just one year ago he was nothing more than a bad guy to everyone.

"RALPH!" Vanellope shouted happily as she made her way up the mountain of bricks to his big hulk body. He was apparently sitting there, seeming to be looking out towards something. When Vanellope finally reached him (which did not take long at all), she took a good look as her friend.

_"I knew there was something wrong with him." _she silently grumbled.

And she was right. When Vanellope glanced at Ralph, she notice that he wasn't his usual self. It was as if he was in a trance. There was a small smile across his face, and as Vanellope looked closer she noticed that his cheeks were a bright red.

"Hey! Are you in there?! Come on, WAKE UP!" she yelled.

Just slightly, Ralph gave a surprised jump. He blinked once, then gave another big yawn. He slowly looked down at Vanellope, blinking again a second time.

"Hey kid." he replied dazzlingly.

Vanellope frowned and gave him a stern look. "Are you okay? You seem kinda... _off_."

For a moment Ralph looked at her as if he didn't know what she was talking about.

"I'm fine kid." he responded after a minute went by, "I'm just...thinking about some things."

This time it was Vanellope's turn to stare at him like she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Ralph, there you are!" came the chipper voice of Felix as he finally made his way towards the two of them.

"You really got to fix up this mess, Wreck-It! It gets harder and harder to get up here."

Calhoun was just behind Felix, apparently not impressed that she had to use some strength to get up here.

"Hey Felix, Calhoun." was all Ralph could say as they finally caught up to them.

Vanellope exchanged a confused glance with the Fix-It's seeing if they knew what was going on. Unfortunately, they did not know either.

"This is rather strange." Felix whispered to Calhoun, "I've never seen him like this before."

"Well, I may not know what happened to him after he left, but something is on his mind." Calhoun whispered back, "I think we should find out."

Vanellope waited no more as she jumped up onto Ralph's big shoulder.

"So...where were you exactly?" she asked him, "We've been worried that you got into some trouble. Well..._I_ was worried." she twiddled the strings on her hoodie as she said this.

"I know..." Ralph nodded, "...I...well the truth is..."

The smile on Ralph grew bigger. Vanellope gasped. _Now she understood_.

"The truth is... _what_?" Felix asked.

Vanellope turned to him and smiled.

"He met someone."

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

"So, are you going to tell us about her?" Felix asked politely, but with great expectation.

"C'mon Knuckles! Tell us!" Vanellope urged on.

Ralph, who was sitting down on an oversized chair in his own house, sighed and stood up. His friends found him earlier sitting on top of his tree stump on the brick pile, thinking about the events that transpired that night. He was embarrassed when Vanellope knew what was going on just by the expression on his face. _I must have looked pretty dumb if Vanellope found out that quick_.

"You guys had better not make fun of me if I tell you." he replied sternly.

"Oh don't worry, we won't." Vanellope responded, the smile on her face growing bigger.

Ralph frowned back at her. He knew that she wouldn't keep a promise well.

"Okay, I...met a girl and...she's, um...different." he began nervously.

"Different, how?" Vanellope asked urging.

"Give Ralph some time Vanellope. It's hard enough for him to explain this, even to us." Felix told her as polite as he could.

Ralph in his own mind always appreciated Felix's help. _Its his nature to be nice, he's a good guy_.

"Go on Ralph." Calhoun said gruffly, for even Ralph could tell she was impatient as well as Vanellope was. But Vanellope was way too excited than Calhoun.

"Anyway um, she's different than the rest of the girls I've been introduced too." he narrowed his eyes at Vanellope, giving her a rugged look. Her smug just grew wider, making the knot he had in his stomach worse. _I knew this was a bad idea_.

"Its as if...she's sort of _childlike_. I've never seen a grown girl that had the traits of a child before." he continued, "When I told her that I was a bad guy-"

"You _TOLD HER_?" all three of them gasped at once.

Ralph was caught by surprise, not suspecting a reaction like that when in fact they told him to try. "Well, yeah I did."

"You goofball!" Vanellope exclaimed as she suddenly jumped onto Ralph's arm, "You really are clueless!"

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Ralph retorted.

Her smug smile grew so much that her cheeks seemed to have turned red. Felix gave a small chuckle.

"What she means Ralph, is that you've surprised us with that sudden courage. Jiminy! I'm all dazzled now!" Felix trembled excitingly.

"Telling a girl that you're a bad guy and not backing out, that takes some guts." Calhoun remarked, a hint of impression in her voice.

For a moment Ralph just stood there looking at his friends; Vanellope on his arm, and the Fix-It's sitting there impressed at what he had just told them.

"Sooo..." Vanellope had now crawled up to Ralph's shoulder, "Are you going to go on a _date_ with this girl soon?"

A chill went through Ralph's neck when he heard the word_ date_. Suddenly he felt the blood in his cheeks boil up again.

"Sweet mother of marshmallows! You already have!" Vanellope exclaimed smugly.

She grabbed onto his sleeve and in a quick motion, squeezed onto Ralph's neck.

"Hey! C'mon Vanellope, let go!" Ralph fidgeted, but Vanellope wouldn't let go of him.

"RALPH HAS GOT A DATE!" Vanellope playfully shouted.

The blood in his cheeks now were uncontrollable, and Ralph found himself turn very red in embarrassment. _It was a bad idea from the start, I knew I should have stayed quiet_.

"Alright, kid. That's enough of the excited gleefulness." Calhoun implied, "Ralph...you don't have to tell us everything."

"Yeah pal." Felix chimed in, "You just met her. And here we are making it more awkward by asking you these uncomfortable questions." Felix stood up and walked over to him, then patted his giant hand.

"You must be exhausted from this adventure you had." Felix asked him after a minute passed.

Ralph nodded silently. He looked at Vanellope to see that the mockery and smugness in her face had softened, realizing that she knew that Felix was right.

"Well," Felix sighed heading for the door, "I guess it's time for us to say good night then."

"Yep." Calhoun agreed, "I'm beat."

Ralph gave a little smile as he watched them go. He gave them a wave goodbye as the Fix-It's left his shack. As he watched them go, he suddenly gave a loud yawn. _"They're right. I'm really exhausted._"

And with that yawn, he felt Vanellope slowly jump off of his shoulder, landing on the floor with a tap. She looked up at him with her big, hazel eyes and smiled.

"G'night then stinkbrain." she said softly.

She turned to walk away. He knew then that she was giving him the look of a "sleepover."

"Hey kid, listen..."

She immediately turned around, and by the look on her face she knew what he was going to say.

"SLEEPOVER!" she cried out happily as she starting bouncing around the room.

Ralph couldn't help but smile as his little friend happily jumped from every wall of his one floor shack.

"I knew you didn't want me to go, lover boy!" she exclaimed after finally settling down.

He felt himself turn red again. "Okay, okay. Enough with this conversation already." he told her, "I just want to get some sleep before the arcade opens, alright?"

"You got it, chief!" Vanellope replied tiringly. She gave out a huge yawn. "Aw, man! Now you've got me yawning!"

Ralph laughed at her, then suddenly he gave another great big yawn. Stretching his big arms, he made his way to his bed. His eyes were groggy with sleep as he plopped down on his bed that wasn't quite big enough for him. His feet were dangling from the end of the bed, but he did not care. Before he drifted off to sleep however, he felt the little figure of Vanellope curl up on his chest under his big hand.

"G'night Ralphie. I'm glad that you met someone." she whispered as she snuggled down on Ralph's huge chest. Slowly Ralph curled his hand around Vanellope, pushing her closely against him. At last, tired as he was, he drifted off to a deep sleep.

While he was in his slumber though, a vivid dream came to his mind. At first he couldn't make out anything other than a blinding, golden light. However as he got closer to the light, he could make out a small, silhouetted figure in the distance. The blinding light had gotten brighter, so he had to shield his eyes with one of his hands just to see.

_Who could that be...?_

A realization came to his mind as he gasped in awe.

The figure that he beheld in the light was a girl.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

"Alright Ralph. We need to straighten some things out."

"Why are we doing this kid?" Ralph protested.

"Because you've never been on a date before silly!" Vanellope replied, "Besides you don't even know her well enough yet."

"So? That doesn't mean that this is _necessary_!" he shouted restraining the anger in his voice.

She gave him a serious frown. Ralph returned it with a scowl. Ever since the previous night, his mind was on the date that was at hand after the arcade closed. He couldn't as much as really concentrate on his job that day, letting Felix win most of the games. After the arcade had closed Ralph was received with showers of praise and questions from the Nicelanders, who apparently found out from Felix before the day started.

But that wasn't the thing that was bothering him that day though. Instead he was bothered about how he would face the girl Lucy that night. He knew that he couldn't mess it up, yet in his mind something probed in his mind that reassured him.

That everything would work out fine.

As Vanellope stared him down though, he began to have second thoughts to the thought that probed at him.

"UGH! FINE KID, YOU WIN!" he sighed, "But this had better help me!"

"Ah, don't worry about that, it will." a smug came across her face.

_"Oh no. This cannot be good." _he uttered to himself.

"If you would follow me." she ordered, skipping away delightedly.

Ralph gave a huge sigh and proceeded right behind her, keeping his distance. He knew then that Vanellope was going to do something that would embarrass him in front of his new friend. _I hope that it is not one of those ridiculous outfits that she once gave me for that party at Tapper's_. Ralph shuddered to think about that one night at Tapper's where the kid made him wear one of the most embarrassing outfits he had ever worn. An itchy, dark green sweater that she had knitted herself for that occasion. Everyone there couldn't stop laughing at him, and he had not been there for more than five minutes before he had to leave with his head reddened with anger and embarrassment.

"Alright Ralph, wait here I'll be right back." Vanellope said stopping him at the East Niceland entrance.

She ran off, leaving Ralph with a hanging question on his lips: _"How am I going to get out of this?"_

After what seemed like hours, she came zipping back to him, her little hands behind her back. Seeing her like this reminded Ralph of the gift Vanellope gave him a year ago when she was a glitch. She had made a heart-shaped cookie that bared the words _You're My Hero_ on it. It was the most precious gift that Vanellope had given to him. Ralph touched the same cookie necklace that was hanging around his neck, a warm feeling welling up inside him as he remembered that day from a year ago when he had meet the little pipsqueak who had stolen the medal he had gotten from Hero's Duty.

"I'm back!" cried Vanellope as she scurried up to his feet.

"Welcome back." Ralph replied sarcastically.

She shook her head showing a warm smile, "Okay Ralph, I'm going to give you something that will help on that date. First close your eyes."

Ralph did as he was told and shut his eyes. Though he couldn't see anything but black, he suddenly felt something warmer than he had felt strike him. _That's strange..._ This warm unknown feeling suddenly grew stronger. Then...Ralph had the strangest thought.

_This feeling...it feels...good. Really good, like nothing I've felt. But...what is it?_

"Okay! Open your eyes!"

Ralph's eyes flickered open, and as quickly as it had come, the warm feeling suddenly went away. He trained his thoughts to the matter at hand. His first thought was to look down at his apparel. Nothing had changed, he saw was his plaid, orange shirt and red overalls. _Good, no itchy sweater._

The next thought he had was to look at what was apparently put into his huge hand. Ralph opened up his hand. Inside his hand was what looked like a hair clip badly made. He recognized that what he held in his hand was a hair pin that he had made himself. The clip itself was made out of the broken stemware that he had found one day in the dump (thinking that Mary had thrown it out because it was too old. He had to carefully polished it with his big wrecker hands, knowing of course having wrecker hands were not for making things, but for breaking them. A flower with a few missing petals lay on the outside of the clip, even though Ralph did not know what kind it was. All he knew was he had found it one day as he was walking along the Nicelander Apartment Building. He found it lying out of place on the sidewalk and thought it best if he took care of it.

Now as he was standing there, stupefied by the trinket in his hands, he had wondered how Vanellope had come by it. He kept it an absolute secret from everyone, even Felix didn't know about his little project.

"Where did you get this from?" he asked Vanellope after recovering from being stupefied by the gift.

"I found it." was all she said.

"How did you find this?" he asked, feeling a temper coming on. A bad one at that.

"It was out on the table in your house when I woke up. I didn't want you to find out about it until now."

"Kid, that was something that I wanted to keep secret!" Ralph replied trying to control his bubbling temper that was now rising.

He saw her face had turned from a happy to a sad look.

"Oh, I...I'm sorry." she stammered, "I thought that it would make a nice present."

"For what?" he asked.

Vanellope did not say anything. She kept her eyes glued down to her little feet. Ralph took in a breath calming himself, then let out a huge sigh.

"Look, I appreciate your help." he warmly comforted, "But I think...I think that I can do this. I don't know, I'm just..." he paused realizing he was raising his voice. He took in another breath, "...I'm really nervous. I've never done something like this before."

"Well, then it's time to learn." she said softly.

Ralph looked down at her to see that she was again smiling, but not a smug smile. It was a smile of understanding and encouragement. He returned a warm grin back at her.

"What are you waiting for then? GO ON! Go to your date. She's waiting for you."

For the first time this evening he realized that it was late.

"OH GEEZ!" he exclaimed and quickly turned and ran towards the small station towards the Niceland Apartment.

"I'LL SEE YOU LATER KID!" he shouted over his shoulder.

"YOU BETTER NOT FORGET OUR USUAL SUNDAY HANGOUT TOMORROW!" Vanellope shouted back.

"I WON'T! I ALWAYS MAKE IT DON'T I?! he replied.

As Vanellope smiled and waved goodbye, Ralph put the trinket in his hand into one of his shirt pockets, and climbed onto the little train. His feet dangling upward and sitting hunched in, the train slowly pulled out of the station into the dark tunnel ahead.

"Ralph," he said to himself, "you're one brave bad guy. Here goes nothing."

**A/N**: And time for a celebration for another chapter done! As for the next chapter...let's just say that this Valentine's Day there will be more fluff, character meetings, and a really awesome date that involves racing karts! See you next chapter!


	7. Chapter 6: The Date

**A/N**: Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! And as a treat, the next chapter in my story! This was the most monstrous, and glorious, chapter I have written so far. Reviews are always good, I can improve on my writing skills that way. Other than that, enjoy this big chapter!

**Disclaimer**: Wreck-It Ralph and the characters within them belong to Disney. My OC Characters and Games belong to me.

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 6: The Date

"No this doesn't look right. Oh man!"

Lucy rubbed her chin with her fingers, trying to figure out what she had done wrong with the drawing she had in her hand. She glanced at Sophie, "What do you think?"

The bird gave no response, but somehow she could understand her just by looking at her.

"I know, I know. It's not as good as it looks." Lucy said giving a little giggle, "But I think it looks great."

She suddenly heard a lot of noise in the station. She turned to look, and realized that the arcade had been closed already for the past five minutes.

"Whoa, is it that time already?!" she exclaimed.

Quickly she put down her pencil and the pad of paper she had been working on, and stood up on the bench to survey the scene. Lucy could not contain her excitement, because she knew that today was the day. The day that she got to meet Ralph again. _I hope he gets here on time._

Looking down at her feet, she began to realize that the light from above her shining through the window started to sink down. Sophie started to chirp as well when the light started to fade. Slowly Lucy raised her hand to the light that was left, like she had done everyday for the last 9 years. Lucy didn't know why she had done this everyday, but the light of the sun that shone through the window made her feel...safe.

"Please come back tomorrow." she whispered softly.

Just as she said this, the light finally shone its last rays of light through the window, and was gone; replaced with the electric lights of the station. Lucy let out a sorrowed sigh, lowering her hand. She knew that there was no going back to the life she had back home. She knew that she couldn't get home at all.

_It was all gone_.

A strange sound made her lose her concentration. "What's that noise? It sounds like..._oh no!_"

As she strained her ears to listen, she heard the sound of giggling girls. Giggling fan girls.

Only meaning that Archer was here. She jumped down from the bench, tightened the cloak around her shoulders, and pulled down the hood tightly over her face. She knew that whenever Archer was around, there was always trouble ahead.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

"Girls PLEASE! You flatter me too much! Just the way I like it." Archer gave his fan girls a wink.

As usual they swooned. _Huh, typical fan girls. _

"You are _so cool_ Archer." said one of the girls, a blonde-haired lass.

"Yeah, I would watch you anyday." chipped up an auburn-haired girl.

The girls then proceeded to talk all at once in admiration to him. This made Archer proud of himself, wooing girls like them. Of course, the girls were from his own game and were easily seduced by his charms.

Archer was just about to comment on what he called his amazing archery skills, when something caught his attention in the corner of his eye.

"Ladies, ladies." he interrupted them, "If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go have a _talk_ with a certain someone."

"AWW!" the ladies whined, "Can't you stay any longer?"

"Don't worry..._I'll be right back_." Archer replied in his irresistible voice. The ladies always love it.

The girls swooned again, and waved happily as he left them at the entrance to _Tapper's_.

Usually he would go shoot some rounds back in his game _Flying Arrows_ before returning to his fans. This time though, he had spotted someone he had seen last night. A certain bad guy who had almost broken his nose at the DDR party.

His confidence suddenly heightened, as he walked over to the certain bad guy with a smug grin growing on his face.

This time he was certain to have his revenge.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Out of breath, Ralph finally managed to walk into Game Central Station. The last few stretches he couldn't wait for the train to stop, so he tried to get out of his very small seat as fast as he could. It took a lot of his stamina and strength to get out, and usually he would take his time getting out. This time he was in a hurry, being almost late for his date.

"Made it!" he huffed heavily.

Ralph had stopped to catch his breath, leaning against the entrance to his game.

_"Well, at least Surge is not here to stop me at the gate this time. I must be lucky."_

At this exact moment, his thoughts were interrupted.

"Wreck-It Ralph."

He jumped expecting the Surge to be there. Instead, he got a good glimpse at a guy that he thought looked very familiar. He furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Um, have we met?" he asked the man.

The man then suddenly bursted out laughing, making Ralph jump again.

"Oh I'm sorry. We have met, but not formally." the man held out his had to him, "Archer from the game _Flying Arrows_."

"Ralph," he nervously replied taking his hand, "from the game _Fix-It Felix Jr._"

After shaking hands, he and Archer stared at each other for a minute.

"So...how do you know me?" he furrowed his brow again.

"You don't remember?" Archer implied. Ralph shook his head.

"We met at the DDR Party. Somehow you must have had a temper flare and almost broke my nose."

Now Ralph understood. The guy he saw before him was the one that was picking on Lucy that last night.

"Right, now I remember." Ralph recalled, "You were the guy that was being a somewhat showoff to everyone right?"

He saw the look on Archer's face turn into a scowl.

"Watch it big guy. I was just trying to warm up to you." Archer retorted.

Ralph felt his temper rising just by looking at him. However he was able to control it, for he didn't want to make a scene and get all beaten up before he met up with Lucy.

"Well, I would like to stay and _warm up_ to you as well. But I have somewhere that I need to be." he walked around the man, trying to control his anger over him, "So another time perhaps."

"Yes, I think that would be best." Archer called after him.

Without a second thought, Ralph hurried away to find Lucy.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy gave a huge sigh of relief, seeing that Archer had not seen or noticed her at all. Now Lucy had gone back to try to draw in her pad of paper again, feeling a little more safer from him. Having pulled off the hood from her cloak, she was now transfixed on the difficult task before her. She was so concentrated in her work, that she didn't notice the big footsteps that came closer behind her.

"I still can't get this right. If only..."

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden tap on her shoulder.

"AHH!" she yelped. Lucy suddenly lost her balance, and fell to the floor.

"Sorry! Are you okay?"

Shaking off the sensation of hitting the floor so suddenly, Lucy looked up to see who was there that had said that. She gasped, a smile spreading across her lips. To her delight she saw that it was Ralph standing there with a worried look on his face.

"I'm fine. Just startled me is all." Lucy replied, giving him a warm smile.

Carefully she picked herself up from the floor, clutching the pad tightly, and stood to face Ralph directly. To her surprise she could see him more clearly than last night, when it was dark. Now in the bright, moving light, Ralph was a lot more taller than she thought he would be. Looking at his face she saw that it was more soft and warmer than before.

"You look...different from before." she implied happily.

She saw Ralph turn red for a moment. "Me? I haven't changed really at all. I'm still the same Ralph." he laughed nervously.

Lucy clutched the pad of paper tighter against her chest. For a moment the two of them stared at the floor with nothing to say.

_"I wonder...should I ask him?" _she found herself muttering to herself.

"Um...say. What do you have in your arms?" Ralph asked her pointing to the pad she was holding.

"Oh, this?" Lucy slowly held out the pad of paper for him to see, "I-It's my sketching pad. I use it to draw art." She felt herself blushing in embarrassment for telling him this, even though Ralph was the first person she felt comfortable in telling.

"You're an artist?" Ralph implied.

"Well...sort of." she sat down cautiously on one of the benches, "Do you want to sit down?"

She gestured to the seat next to her for Ralph to sit in.

"Sure...okay." Ralph cautiously plopped down in the seat next to her.

Looking away from him, she clutched the sketch pad even tighter to her chest. Her mind was racing around in circles, making her feel dizzy. It was only when she felt the pad pressing hardly against her did she realize that she was nervous.

"C-can I...a-ask you something?" she stuttered sloppily.

When she looked up again, he was looking at her expecting her to finish.

"May...may I?"

She then turned her eyes to what she was focused on: his big wrecking hands.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Noticing that Lucy's attention was to his hands, Ralph turned to look at his hands as well.

"May I...use you..."

Ralph felt his blush darken.

"...I mean your _hands_!" she corrected quickly. "May I use your hands for a drawing?"

Ralph couldn't answer, he was too stunned and trying to contain the blood rushing to his cheeks.

"Y-yeah, sure." he stuttered.

She smiled, giving a warm chuckle. Then quite suddenly she took one of his big hands. This caught Ralph by surprise. _What is she doing? _

"Sorry if I startled you." she replied almost immediately, "I'm just studying your hands."

"What for?" he asked her.

Lucy remained quiet, still focusing her attention on his hands.

"Well I...tried to draw them before, from memory. But...for some reason it was much more difficult than I realized." she faintly smiled, "When I first saw your hands...I knew that they were different from the rest. I've seen other big hands before, but...they were not _human hands_. It made them easy to draw. But when I tried drawing your hands...it seemed like I was...unable to draw at all."

She slowly let go of his hand. Ralph's heart was beating so fast that he wasn't sure if he was still breathing. Carefully, Lucy placed the pad of paper in front of her. She took out what seemed to look like a writing utensil. _Called a pencil I think._ Flipping the pad open, Ralph noticed that her cheerful expression seemed to dramatically change. _"It's as if she's more serious now." _he thought.

"Now, um...just hold your hands still." she bashfully told him, "And don't move them, okay?"

He nodded his head without a word, his heart still pounding.

Then she began to draw. As she went on, her expression was now more serious than he had ever seen before. He almost thought that she was a different person than the girl he had met last night.

_I need to know her._ The thought was pounding in his mind like a hammer on a nail. _I need to know more._

"Lucy?"

Her eyes looked up at him, her expression never wavering. _Now's your chance!_

"Where...is it that you're from?" The words came out slowly as if time had stopped.

Her eyes returned to the pad, she was quiet. Ralph almost leaned forward to listen, but remembered that he had to keep still.

"_Shining Magic_. That's the game that I'm from." she responded keeping her eyes on the pad of paper, "_Shining Magic_ was my home before-"

She suddenly gasped, her big eyes widening.

"What? What's wrong?!" he asked worriedly

"Oops! I just made a mistake." she laughed happily.

She then flipped her pencil upside down, and scrubbed the paper with the pink stub at the end. He let out a silent sigh of relief. Her expression turned back to a concentrated one.

"-before I was exiled." she finished not flinching.

"Exiled?"

"Yeah. Nine years ago from yesterday I arrived here at Game Central...and I never left." She paused with her pencil stuck on the paper.

Ralph narrowed his eyes, "If you never left then...how come you go into other games?"

"Back in my game, if someone learns something new, defeats an enemy, or even explores a new place...we gain experience and grow." Her pencil moved gracefully across the paper again.

"Grow how? As in get powerful?" he asked.

"No." she bit her lip as her pencil pressed hardly against the paper, "We grow older. I was a kid when I came to the station. Now I've grown to what you see now, because I had explored other games."

"WAIT...you were a KID?!" Ralph mildly shouted. He didn't want to scare her with his big voice. He knew how loud his voice could get.

This time Lucy looked all the way up at his face. She was frowning at him, her eyes big and wide.

"Hold still, it's hard to draw a moving target." she told him sternly.

He realized then that he had moved his hands. _Oh man, you embarrassed yourself! You almost blew it stupid!_

"Sorry." he responded glumly. He put his hands back where they were.

"Hey it's okay." Lucy smiled, her frown completely gone, "It happens, don't worry yourself over it."

It was a long time before the both of them said a word. With one final movement of the pencil she held in her hand, she happily set down the pad of paper.

"Done!" she exclaimed, "You can move now."

He sighed as he moved his sore hands around from its stiff position. He felt a tug on his sleeve.

"You want to see it?" Lucy asked.

"Sure."

She extended the pad to him, the paper turned to him. At first he looked at it closely because he couldn't tell what he was looking at.

"Um...sorry the paper's upside down." Lucy responded and turned the pad right side up.

Ralph gasped.

"Oh my land!"

What he saw was a perfectly detailed drawing of his own hands.

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From the way he sounded, she thought that something was definitely wrong with it.

"I know. Its bad isn't it?" she glumly muttered hiding behind the sketch pad.

"No. This is amazing!"

"What?" She poked her head from behind the pad.

She saw that Ralph was _smiling_. Not frowning, but _smiling_.

"This is really good!" he commented, "You're a really good artist."

"You...you think so?" she shyly replied.

Ralph put his hand upon the paper. That was when Lucy noticed for the first time that he had teeth, and he was _grinning_. But when she looked at his toothy grin, she couldn't help but smile at a missing tooth within his grin.

"You know," she put down the sketch pad, turning her head up to Ralph, "no one has ever said that my art was good before."

She suddenly felt something warm come up to her cheeks. _What is this? I've never felt this feeling before._ Curiosity struck her as she tried to figure out this new feeling.

"Lucy?"

She jerked her head up quickly realizing that she had drifted off in her thoughts. The curious feeling she had was still there, no matter how much she tried to shake it off.

"Would you...like to go somewhere with me?"

Lucy found herself gasping as Ralph extended a hand out to her.

She couldn't find the words, she couldn't find anything. The question rang through her mind like a gong and took ahold of her. She couldn't shake the curious feeling she had. _Where does he want to take me? To a game? Is it somewhere that I've been to before? _The curious questions nagged at her, making her indecisive of what to say.

"G-g-go somewhere? W-with you?" she stuttered.

"Yeah." he replied, "Well...s-since we're friends I thought...well I-I could take you to someplace you've never been to before. I-If you want to."

Lucy remained silent looking at his outstretched hand. She had never ever been asked by someone else to go someplace with her. It was unthinkable that someone would ever do that.

"Then again...perhaps it's time that I started to try. To try to trust others again."

She took his hand in one swift motion.

"You know...I've never really been to the game _Sugar Rush_ before. Maybe...we could go there first?" She found herself smiling up at him, holding his hand in hers.

As the two of them made their way across the station, Lucy couldn't help but feel very happy to be going with someone else. She held Ralph's hand tighter. _It was going to be a great day after all._

Just then they had reached the entrance into _Sugar Rush_. Peering closer, she realized that she could not see anything inside. It was a dark tunnel. And she remembered now that the dark scared her more than anything. She let go of Ralph's hand with her mind full of fear. He turned to her surprised of her sudden movement back.

"What's wrong? I thought you wanted to go to _Sugar Rush_." He took a step closer to her. Lucy shook her head furiously and step back from him.

"I can't. I...I just can't!" she sadly told him. The fear had now taken over her whole body, pushing her back away from the entrance all together.

"Why not?"

Lucy glumly looked down taking care not to let Ralph see her face. She knew even though that this was their second meeting, that Ralph worried about her being unhappy. But...she had to tell him why, it was a risk worth taking.

"I'm..._terrified_...of the dark." she slowly explained. For a moment she couldn't breathe, waiting for Ralph's reply. Instead there was silence, and when Lucy looked back up at him, she saw to her surprise that his hand was extended out to her once more.

"Then...let me help you." he replied in a warm voice that Lucy had never heard before. A whole new feeling she had never felt before had suddenly welled up inside her heart. Without even realizing it until it was too late, she sprinted to take not his hand, but his arm instead.

"Don't let go then, okay?" she faintly responded, her face pressed against the lower part of his big arm.

From out of the corner of her eye she saw Ralph smiling down at her, his cheeks having turned a bright red. "Don't worry, I'll make sure we get there in one piece."

Lucy grabbed on tighter to Ralph as they both made their first step into the tunnel that lead into _Sugar Rush_.

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"Where are we going exactly?"

"To where Lucy and that ape of a wrecker is going Garren!" Archer quietly scolded.

They snuck past each of the characters that were on their usual business during closing hours at the arcade. And a big crowd it was that day. Garren who was following Archer's lead, feared that the obsession of revenge was starting to get to him.

"Archer, why can't we just go to _Tapper's_. I'm sure the fan girls would love to see you throw some more darts." he tried to convince Archer.

"NO! Something must be done about those two!" Archer scowled.

The two of them had been secretly spying on Lucy and Ralph for a long time, and Garren was really tired from sneaking around. The both of them had followed the two to the entrance to the go-kart game called _Sugar Rush_, where moments before they had entered the dark tunnel to the game.

"And _I'm_ going to be the one to do it!" Archer finished.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

Garren muttered worriedly.

Reluctantly Garren followed his archery hero into the tunnel.

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Lucy held her breath the whole time through the dark tunnel. Her eyes were squeezed shut, thinking that it would keep out the fear of getting lost. She clutched Ralph's arm so tightly that she almost thought she would hurt him. Instead Ralph had let her hold him tightly, and told her that he would not let go of her even for a moment.

"Ralph...you're so nice to me. I just hope we make it through in one piece."

It felt like hours went by when a light pierced through her shut eyes. Curious, she opened one eye slightly.

"There's the end." she heard Ralph saying.

Cautiously Lucy opened up the one eye a little more. Sure enough, there was a light that lay just ahead of them. She sighed in relief, having made it through. Her arms loosened on Ralph's arm as they made their last few steps out of the tunnel into the open.

"Welcome to _Sugar Rush_." Ralph said in a booming voice.

Shielding her eyes from the sudden bright light, she beheld before her a massive landscape that stretched out as far as she could see. "_This is...candy! The landscape is covered in candy! Everywhere I look there are treats and sugary things." _

"This place...it's...it's so amazing!" she felt herself choking on the words. That was when she realized she was almost crying.

"Are you...okay? You have tears in your eyes." Ralph was now looking down at her.

Realizing he noticed her in tears, she quickly let go of his arm and rubbed the tears away from her cheeks.

"I'm okay." she replied smiling, "It's just...so beautiful here."

"Well come on, let's go down to the race track!" Ralph raced down the long bridge leading down to a path that lead on through what looked like a candy-cane forest to the race track beyond. Lucy wanted to follow him, but hesitated to move down the steep bridge. _"A race track? From what I've heard of this place, there must be go-karts. And not only just karts, but __**candy go-karts**__!"_

Now more than anything did she want to go down to the race track. She wanted to see the karts, maybe even _race_ in them! Without realizing it she ran down the bridge so fast that her cloak had come undone and flown off of her. At the end she ran right into Ralph knocking her down from her feet, taken completely by surprise. Looking up at Ralph she saw that he was taken by surprise as well. The both of them laughed aloud at what had just transpired.

With the help from Ralph, Lucy managed to get onto her feet again after her stumble.

"Whoa!" Ralph gaped in awe.

"What?" she asked confused.

It was after Ralph pointed out her missing cloak did she realize that the cloak had fallen off of her. What Ralph saw was that without the cloak, he saw her in a short, long strapped golden dress that she had made herself with the materials from her home.

The materials she used to make the dress were of magical properties that she had forgotten the names of. The only material name that she could remember that was used for the dress was Fauridian. She did not know what it meant, but as she was standing in front of Ralph, she could not help but feel embarrassed for him to see her like this.

"My cloak!" she shouted having found the right words.

"It flew away as you ran down the bridge." Ralph replied, "But...I, well...I kind of like you without it." he turned away from her, but she caught him turning red again. She still couldn't figure out why, but she knew it meant something.

Lucy extended her hand to Ralph as he turned to look at her again.

"Come on! Let's go to the race track!" she said cheerfully.

A smile came back across his face, taking Lucy's hand in his. Excited Lucy pulled Ralph by the hand (but to only move him a little until his feet kicked in) along across the pathway that lead into the candy trees ahead, heading towards the _Sugar Rush _racetrack. For the first time in her life, Lucy could not wait to see what adventures she and Ralph were going to have that day. And she knew without even talking to him, Ralph felt the same way.

**A/N**: What adventures await them? Find out next chapter! See you then!


	8. Chapter 7:Let's Go To The Racetrack!

**A/N:** And I am back guys! Sorry that this next chapter took so long, I was in writer's block and then there was school stuff, and then there was laptop troubles! Mayhem everywhere! Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this next chapter (though I think this could have been better, but who am I to complain). Reviews are much appreciated and will be taken with open arms, questions regarding the story will be taken openly as well (unless of course it's for spoilers, in which I say Ha! Not today!)

Wreck-It Ralph characters belong to Disney. My oc Lucy belongs to me.

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The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 7: Let's Go To The Racetrack!

Lucy's hand was warm within Ralph's as they made their way through the candy tree forest. He almost felt himself turn red, being it the first time he had ever held onto a girl's hand. It was silly of him that he would be embarrassed by the touch of someone else's hand. He silently watched Lucy as she looked around, taking in all of the candy trees they walked past.

Ralph suddenly remembered that since they were in _Sugar Rush_, that would mean that they would encounter Vanellope at some point. "_She would no doubt ask who she is and how we met."_ Ralph wondered how embarrassing it would be to be seen by Vanellope, her best friend, with a pretty girl like Lucy.

Silence surrounded Ralph as he kept walking. He thought this rather odd, seeing that the forest was always making some sort of sound. Turning to the side he realized why.

Lucy was gone.

_"Where did she go?!" _Ralph panicked, worrying that Lucy had somehow got lost.

He retraced his steps back through the forest, looking at every candy tree he went past.

"Lucy! Where are you?" Ralph called as he ran faster into the forest.

He was running through for a minute before he stopped, looking in every direction to see if Lucy was there.

_"Where could she have gone?"_

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"Finally, I can have some peace and quiet!" Vanellope sighed leaning against the trunk of a candy tree. Having gotten away from her presidential duties for a breather, she felt relieved that there was no race for the random roster today. Silently she wondered how her big wrecker was doing on his date.

_"I hope he doesn't cause any trouble with her. Or that she doesn't cause trouble for **him**."_

A loud yelp below snapped her out of her thoughts, making her glitch a little in surprise. She looked down to find something hanging from one of the tree branches below. Raising an eyebrow, Vanellope looked down at this thing, wondering what in the world it was doing there.

"Hey!" she yelled down at it, "What are you doing hanging there?"

The thing flinched and turned its head up to look at her.

"Oh." Vanellope silently gasped as she looked at the golden eyes of a young lady.

She smiled at her, seeming to not mind that she was just hanging above the taffy lake that was right below her.

"H-Hello." she nervously called, "I-I didn't know someone was up here."

Vanellope blew a raspberry, pushing some hair out of her face, "What did you expect? Candy cane birds?"

The girl gave Vanellope an innocent, naïve look. Vanellope assumed she never heard that joke before.

"You're not from around here, are you?" she asked the girl.

She shook her head, "No...I mean I'm just visiting. I-It's my first time here."

"Really?" Vanellope leaned down closer to the girl, "No wonder I've never seen you before..."

She raised her eyebrow again as she looked at closer at the girl. For some reason this girl looked familiar...as if she had seen someone like her the day before.

"Hey, you look familiar girlie." she said, "Are you sure you've never seen me before?"

The girl looked at her closely, still having not noticed that she was still hanging from the branch.

"I don't think so." she replied slowly.

They stayed silent only staring intently at each other.

"Um...girlie. You know you're hanging by a thread on that double-striped branch."

Vanellope pointed down to the branch she held onto.

"Oh, right!" the girl exclaimed. Slowly she hoisted herself up onto the branch, then jumped up onto the candy branch Vanellope sat on. Just then the double-striped one she held onto broke and fell into the taffy puddle below, dissipating before it hit the puddle. The girl looked down at where the branch used to be, apparently surprised and intrigued by the fate of that branch.

"Whoa, I could have fallen with that branch!" she laughed, causing Vanellope to nervously glitch a little.

Now Vanellope could see fully what the girl looked like. She wore a very odd, short golden dress that flowed each time she moved. Her light brown hair covered the left side of her face, hiding one of the big golden eyes that stared curiously at her.

"You're...just a little kid." she whispered amazed.

Vanellope gave her a stern look, "Yeah, I'm a little kid. But just because I'm a kid doesn't make me cute and innocent. I happen to be the _president_ of this game." she smirked as she straightened herself and crossed her arms.

"Really? That's amazing!" the girl squealed jumping once on the branch.

Vanellope looked at her annoyingly and rolled her eyes. _Man, she's a little more stranger than me._

After the girl stopped jumping up and down in excitement she cautiously sat gingerly on the candy branch. She looked back at Vanellope, who was shifting from foot to foot nervously.

"So...what's you're name if I might ask girlie?" Vanellope eyed at the girl.

She fidgeted a little, shifting where she sat. She said nothing, suddenly looking away from her, as if she was embarrassed. _Interesting._ Vanellope thought.

"My name is Lucy." she said bashfully still looking away, "What's yours?"

"President Vanellope von Schweetz." she stated putting her hand out for a handshake.

The girl looked back at Vanellope, then she stared at her extended hand.

"Well come on! Haven't you ever seen a handshake before?" Vanellope said annoyed.

"Oh, sorry." she apologized, taking her hand and gently shaking it a few times.

Vanellope chuckled loudly, "I'm guessing you're not a 'people person'."

"No, I guess I'm not." Lucy giggled happily.

When they finished their handshake, the two girls sat on the branch in silence. Lucy sighed, looking out onto the rest of the forest. Vanellope could not take eyes off of her.

_"I know I've seen her someplace before...but, where?" _she thought about it a long time, looking at Lucy as if she was already well acquainted with her.

"Well...Lucy right?"

The girl nodded still gazing out on the landscape. Vanellope then developed an idea. Though she hoped it wasn't true.

"You...don't happen to know a certain friend of mine do you?" she stated slowly, a smile spreading across her face.

"Friend?" Lucy asked tilting her head.

"Yeah. You know...people that are close to you. Friends." Vanellope put her hands on her hips, still very annoyed.

"Oh. You mean a person who you are around with a lot?"

"Exactly." Vanellope huffed, _"She finally gets it! Took her long enough."_

"I have a friend."

Vanellope looked back up at Lucy, who was brightly smiling now.

"He helped me face my fear of walking in the dark...well sort of." Lucy sighed.

"Is that so?" Vanellope muttered.

Lucy nodded, looking over now to the racetrack in the distance. Vanellope looked in her direction, realizing what she really wanted to see.

"Can you...take me to the racetrack? I've been wanting to see the racetrack ever since I heard of that story-"

"Story? What are you talking about?" Vanellope interrupted cocking an eyebrow upward.

"Oh! You know the story of the one that game-jumped to this game?"

"Well..." Vanellope paused thinking back to what stories she had heard. _Game-jumped? She doesn't mean..._

"I-If you don't know that's fine." Lucy fidgeted nervously.

"Actually...I was there when it happened." Vanellope stated slowly.

"Really?!" Lucy squealed again, her smile growing wider than she had ever seen.

"Y-Yeah I was." Vanellope stammered. Then she developed another idea.

"But...tell you what, I'll lead you to the racetrack and tell you how I know on the way. In return though...I want to know more about you." Vanellope held her hand out for the handshake deal, "Deal?"

Lucy looked at her hand once more, hesitant to reach hers out for Vanellope's.

"Deal." she beamed as she quickly grabbed Vanellope's tiny hand and shook it twice.

A huge grin came across Vanellope's face. She gestured the girl to follow her down the candy tree.

"Okay, be careful when coming down. It can be dangerous, so just follow what I do."

Lucy nodded as she followed her branch by branch down the candy tree. When they finally reached the bottom, Vanellope skipped and hopped across the gumdrop stepping stones one by one, until she reached firm ground. She watched Lucy follow suit, hopping not as quickly as Vanellope had, but was careful not to fall in. She stumbled a few times but recovered as she finally found her feet on solid ground.

"Come on then girlie! Time's a wasting! Let's go!" Vanellope called as she skipped on her way towards the track.

"HEY! WAIT FOR ME!" Lucy called back as she raced to catch up with her.

Vanellope could only hope that this girl was not the one who Ralph was talking about. _Oh please just let it be another girl. _

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_"I can't believe I'm actually going there!" _Lucy smiled as she caught up with the little girl Vanellope.

She looked down at the little girl beside her wondering how in the world she had become a president of this game.

"So..." Lucy started after a moment of walking silently, "You said you were there when it happened right?"

The girl looked up at her. "Yes, I was." she said sincerely, "I found him trying to get a medal of all things!"

She gave a small chuckle. Lucy cocked her head a little, her curiosity taking the best of her.

"Anyway...he was trying to get back his medal he earned from another game, and I managed to take that medal to enter in the random roster race." Vanellope continued, "Then he wanted it back, so I offered him the deal-"

"To get his medal back if he helps you build a kart and win the race." Lucy finished.

She stopped walking and turned to look at Lucy head on. Lucy realized what she had done, covering her mouth in embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to...I mean it's just..."

"It's okay girlie. You don't have to apologize." Vanellope smiled warmly.

She took one of Lucy's hand in hers, the little hand grasping tightly onto Lucy's. She started to pull with anticipation.

"Come on, come on! The racetrack's this way!" she exclaimed pulling Lucy along with her.

At this Lucy smiled and hurried along with the girl, until they reached a little hill leading downwards to the track.

The girl let go of Lucy's hand and gestured out onto the scene below, "Miss Lucy, I give you the Sugar Rush racetrack!"

She couldn't believe her eyes. The track was so much more amazing than she imagined.

In rows of three she saws miniaturized go-karts that fit about the size of a kid. Each one was different in design. One had a pink triangular design that looked very much like a lollipop. Another one was designed like a green slice of cake, with the candles sticking out to the sides of the kart. There were many more karts, each designed in its own way.

The archway finish line beyond the karts was more magnificent to behold. A white and pink checkered strip lay below. The arches of the finish line led up to a huge, golden trophy at the top. Around the trophy she saw tinier karts go around it like a carousel ride. She took it all in, glancing in awe at one thing, and the next she gazed in amazement at another. It was all so beautiful to her.

"Amazing." she gaped in awe still taking in everything.

"Well, that's the thing about big race tracks, they are _pretty big_." she heard Vanellope say.

"Then...can I ask you something?"

"Wait a minute, girlie!" Vanellope interrupted making Lucy flinch, "You still got to tell me more about you."

Vanellope gave her an annoyed stare, causing her to be a bit nervous. _She had never told anyone about herself before, on top of that she did not have any social conversation with anyone in a long time._

She fidgeted her hands, clasping them tightly and letting them go nervously. Suddenly Lucy looked down at her arm and realized that her arm that was once blackened, was not so black anymore. _Most of it had disappeared! _ In the corner of her eye she saw Vanellope's expression turning into concern.

"Hey, are you okay? You don't look so good."

Lucy turned around quickly to face her, "I-I'm fine, don't worry about me. I-It's just...I haven't spoken to...a-anyone else...for a long while..." Lucy felt her throat turn dry as she got more and more nervous.

"Oh, it's alright! Besides, I'm not much for conversation either." Vanellope smirked playfully.

Lucy looked at the little girl, standing with her on the edge of the hill looking downwards on the racetrack.

"Well...okay. It's...it's gonna sound a little weird, but I...I am a magical girl." she held her breath waiting for her to react.

Vanellope just looked back at her in silence. Then quite suddenly, she busted out laughing. Lucy flinched, surprised at how she was taking this. _But she desperately hoped she was taking this well though._

"I'm sorry girlie, I couldn't help it." she chuckled after the long laugh, "I've never heard of a magical girl before."

"You haven't?" Lucy said taken aback.

"No, not particularly." Vanellope straightened up, looking back at her with happy tears still in her eyes. She wiped them off onto the sleeve of her hoodie.

"I see. Well...I could tell you, if you want." Lucy hesitated looking expectantly at the girl.

She stared at her with her big hazel eyes, making Lucy nervous. "Yeah. I would, since I've never heard of a _magical girl_ before."

Lucy blinked at her response. A smile spread across her face once more. _She was willing to try again. _

"Alright, let's see...a magical girl, is someone who has special powers." Lucy began. She sat down to Vanellope's level where she could see her more clearly.

"You mean...as in _magic_, not special abilities?" Vanellope asked moving closer.

Lucy thought for a moment, hesitating. "Well...yes I guess you could say that."

She smiled a sweet smile, urging her to go on.

"Anyway these magic powers are used to push away any darkness or evil, such as..." Lucy gulped nervously before continuing, "...as shadows."

"What are shadows?"

Lucy became very nervous then. She never really talked about the shadows to anyone openly. They were always a bad sign, and did not want to put this girl in any danger. "_But...she wants to know. I...guess it couldn't hurt."_

"They...are creatures that don't take on any real shape or form. These shadows can keep changing their appearances according to what they want to appear as..."

"Then...could they turn into people like us?" Vanellope asked her.

"Well, the thing is...I've never seen one that's taken a human form." Lucy responded hesitantly, "I guess they only take the shapes of creatures or animals. Like...they are not human at all."

The two of them stayed quiet, the sound of the _Sugar Rush _theme song playing all through the game. Lucy listened to the song, intrigued by the language it used. But what really intrigued her was that somehow she could _understand_ what the words were. She then found herself humming to the tune, her head swaying back and forth to the beat of the music.

"Hey girlie, do you know this song?" she heard Vanellope ask.

"No, not at all. But for some reason...I can understand what they are saying." Lucy looked back down at Vanellope, her eyes having grown wide. 

"Hmm..." Vanellope hummed thoughtfully, "You are indeed-strange...but not as strange as my friends."

She clasped Lucy's hand again, "So...what is it you wanted to ask me about?"

Lucy looked over to the racetrack, wondering now if indeed it was possible to do what she had in mind. She looked back at the little girl, smiling brightly.

"May I...with your permission of course... go racing on this track?" Lucy brightly asked.

Vanellope gave her a shocked expression as she stared back at Lucy, her hazel eyes having gone wide again.

"OF COURSE YOU CAN!" she exclaimed loudly.

Lucy flinched, surprised by the outburst. Then her smile grew wider.

"You would really let me?!" Lucy replied loudly to match her voice.

"Yeah, of course! You're not as bad as you look."

Vanellope crossed her arms, examining Lucy from top to bottom.

"You do look like you would be a great racer...except you're older and taller than the others." she chuckled, still examining Lucy, "But I think you'll do."

"VANELLOPE!"

Lucy flinched, turning towards the sound of another little kid running up towards them. She was just about Vanellope's height, except her hair was white and she wore pink opposed to Vanellope's green hoodie, brown skirt, and candy-dirtied hair.

"Hey, Taffyta." Vanellope called waving to her as she closed the gap between them.

"Do you know where Candlehead went-oh!" she turned, finally noticing Lucy.

Lucy began to feel awkward, not knowing if this girl was friendly to strangers. _What do I do? What do I say? _

"Taffyta, this is Lucy." Vanellope pointed at Lucy, "She's going to race with us today. See if she's got the material to be a racer."

Taffyta narrowed her eyes as she stared Lucy down. Now Lucy was beginning to feel as if she was not wanted around. Then Taffyta gave her a sliver of a smile.

"I think she's got the material." Taffyta winked giving her a thumbs up, "Can't wait to see what you've got."

With that Taffyta walked off, leaving Lucy and Vanellope alone once more. Lucy still could not get over the nervous feeling. _Like there was something wrong._

As she was contemplating what she could possibly think was wrong, something whizzed just right past her ear. Giving a surprised yelp Lucy quickly got up just in time to dodge another one that was flying toward her head. Looking over she saw that Vanellope had quickly moved in front of her. _"But it was in an instant...how did-"_

That was when Lucy noticed that blue pixels were surrounding her completely, but only for an instant she caught glimpse of it.

"Who's out there?!" Vanellope's voice boomed.

Lucy was surprised that this little girl was a lot braver than she looked. _"No wonder she's President of Sugar Rush."_

"I know you're out there, ARCHER!" she yelled.

Lucy gasped as an arrow came whizzing past the two of them, hitting the arch of the finish line below. Then out of nowhere he jumped out in front of them, his bow raised and pointed straight at Lucy.

"Hello there, Miss Lucy." Archer smiled.


	9. Chapter 8: Awakened Powers

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 8: Awakened Powers

In the distance Garren watched worriedly as Archer stood his ground, his bowstring stretched back as far as it can go. Standing in front of Lucy was a little girl a little under his own height. The look in her eyes was sheer determination. He knew that well because he had seen Archer with those same eyes. But as Garren looked upon his eyes now, for some reason they were not the same eyes that he had come to know. Archer's eyes had gone cold with no trace of any warm kindness.

_"I have to stop him! He's gone mad!"_

Garren looked on at them, trying to hear their conversation. He then saw Archer slowly closing in on the two girls. As much as Garren wanted to stop him, his feet did not move forward. He was scared of the way he looked, _he knew that it was not him at all._

Suddenly he heard a very loud rustle coming from right behind them. Being very scared as he was now Garren quickly turned only to feel violent tremors beneath his feet.

Garren knew at that moment that a storm was coming.

And he knew just who it was.

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Lucy could not find the words to speak as she stared helpless at the drawn arrow aimed right at her. She could see that Vanellope was shocked as she still stood her ground.

"You know this guy?!" she finally whispered turning towards her.

"Yes she does." Archer's voice answered back, "And she's going to pay for what she did!"

Lucy turned her attention to him, a feeling of confusion mixed with curiosity jumbled inside her head.

"What do you mean?" she asked, "What did I do to you?"

"You know perfectly well what you did to me!" he yelled back making her flinch.

Vanellope turned back to Archer looking as confused as Lucy was, "What exactly did Lucy do to you, might I ask?"

He hesitated, his bowstring drawing tighter with each passing moment. In the corner of Lucy's eye she spotted a little boy in the distance. He looked as if he was scared to come any closer.

"Why does he look familar? Have I seen-"

"She was the one that broke my heart!" Archer bellowed deeply.

Lucy flinched, gasping as she came back to Archer now slowly approaching her. His eyes were just about as cold as stone. She thought this rather odd somehow.

"Even if Archer was chasing after me, he would never have cold eyes like that. Something is definitely wrong."

"You were the one who turned me away when I wanted to be with you! You were the one that shut me out when the darkness was taking you apart!" Archer shouted at Lucy.

Archer was now almost up to the two of them as an unpleasant smile came across his face. Lucy shivered at the sight, wishing that she was somewhere other than where she was now.

"Now...I get to have my **revenge**!"

His tensed arm pulling the arrow back was now at the point to release. Lucy now understood why Archer was acting this way.

He's under a shadow's control.

Then very slightly, Lucy felt something tremble beneath her feet. The ground below her seemed to be trembling violently.

"Lucy! Take my hand, quickly!"

Vanellope ran herself into Lucy, grabbing her arm and pulling her down to her level. Then without warning they left the solid ground below. All Lucy could see was hot, blue pixels surrounding her before her eyes faded to black.

Before fading into unconsciousness, Lucy could have sworn she had seen the big figure of Ralph heading towards her and Vanellope.

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Having heard voices at the racetrack, Ralph followed them determined to find Lucy before she got herself hurt. He had stopped in his tracks when he heard a familiar voice. The voice of the man called Archer. Even though he was very far from them, he could still see the three figures in the distance. One of them having pointed his bow and arrow at two of the figures, who stood in silence.

Ralph tried his best to understand what they were saying, but even having very good hearing it was of no use. Looking closer he could clearly make out the one holding the bow was definitely Archer, but something was wrong. _Very wrong. _

"Why in the world is he-" Ralph stopped midsentence when his eyes caught onto the other two figures. The smaller one he knew all to well, for he knew what Vanellope looked like anyday. But the other figure made him stop dead.

It was Lucy.

She stood there unmoved as Archer had his bow raised right up to her.

At this point, his bad-guy code had given away to blind rage, but inside he knew that it was his courage to protect his friends. Both of them.

Ralph charged forward running as fast as he could. He ran so fast that he barely noticed that he ran past the little boy that always was with Archer. Within that split second, the boy gave a frightened but surprised expression as he passed by.

With one swing of his wrecking fist, he hit the target that was Archer. As soon as Ralph's fist hit him, Archer collapsed to the ground in a daze. For a moment he lay there with a shocked expression on his face.

At the moment Ralph snapped out of his blind rage. He lowered his hands as he looked down at the dazed man that lay there. Then he realized that the two girls had disappeared. Looking all around him he tried to spot them. To his relief Ralph spotted Vanellope's waving hand over at the starting line of the racetrack; and Lucy was there as well, apparently having lost consciousness.

The sound of Archer waking out of his daze snapped him back to where he was. He stood up slowly to meet Ralph, but this time Archer was not about to walk away.

Ralph raised his fists high, ready for his attack.

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"Ow..." Lucy groaned as she slowly regained consciousness.

When she opened her eyes, she was surprised by the sight of Vanellope looking right at her closely.

"Oh good, you're awake and alright, girlie." she sighed in relief.

Slowly Lucy sat up, looking at her surroundings. Looking across from her Lucy saw the white and pink checkered starting line, and looking up she saw the word "Start" on the colorful archway.

"This is...the racetrack." she muttered in amazement.

Vanellope gave a big smirk, "Yep, I glitched us down here out of harm's way."

Lucy gasped now remembering that a few moments before they were standing before Archer's arrow.

"What happened?! Where's Archer?!" she exclaimed terrified.

Vanellope pointed up to the hill that they were just on. As Lucy looked in Vanellope's direction, she could just see Archer perched there on the hill. Except he was not standing there, but instead he was laying on the ground, dazed. Her attention then was turned to the other figure that had appeared out of nowhere. Her eyes widened as she gazed at the sight of Ralph, just as dazed as Archer was.

"C'mon girlie!" she heard Vanellope's voice say, "We've got to get out of here before something terrible happens!"

She grabbed her hand and tugged on it, but Lucy did not budge. She still watched as Archer slowly came back up on his feet.

"Ralph..."

Lucy felt Vanellope's tugs stop dead. Curious she looked down at her wondering what was wrong.

"How...?" she asked dazed, "How do you know my friend Ralph?"

Lucy looked down at the little girl. She suddenly realized that she had seen her before.

_At the DDR party, where she had met Ralph._

"Wait...I _do _know you." Lucy said slowly.

Vanellope looked back at her confused. "So, you _do _remember."

Lucy nodded, "Yeah, I saw you last night...barely...at that party."

She then showed her the cloth that Ralph had wrapped around her arm.

"He helped me when I was in trouble and when my arm got bruised." she smiled at the girl, "You're friend...he is very kind."

The both of them just sat there as Vanellope stared at Lucy's wrapped arm. Lucy knew that Vanellope was just as shocked as scared as she was. Suddenly Lucy gasped silently as she realized that Ralph was in trouble.

"Vanellope, we have to go back there." Lucy said starting to get up.

"WHAT?! NO WAY!" Vanellope tugged back on Lucy making her fall down, "Did you see the look in that guy's eyes? He means to _hurt _you."

"But I know a way to save them." Lucy answered diligently.

Vanellope only gave her a concerned look. She knew that the little girl did not want to go back to the possible danger that lay up on the hill.

Lucy took the little girl's hand in hers,"Look Vanellope, we're both friends with Ralph right? And we want to make sure he's safe and sound, right?"

She felt Vanellope's hands tremble inside of hers as she slowly nodded silently.

"Then...we have to go back."

She gave Vanellope a warm smile, telling her that it would be alright. The girl sniffled once, then squeezed her hands into Lucy's.

"What's your plan then girlie." she responded with determination.

"I can do something to stop Archer, but...it's just been so long since I've used it."

She looked up towards the hill, "I just hope this works."

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Left and right Ralph dodged his incoming attacks as Archer swung and shot arrows at him.

"He's fast, I'll give him that much. But his attacks are just...way to violent."

Another arrow whizzed past him as he barely dodged it.

"Oh, you're going to wish you hadn't done that." Ralph growled.

He charged straight at him, ready to blow another punch to his head. Instead of hitting him though, his hands only felt air as his fists came down onto the sugary ground. Ralph quickly got to his feet, looking around confusingly. Then he heard another arrow being shot, but he could not see Archer anywhere.

"Where's the arrow coming from?"

Confused as he was, Ralph only just barely missed the arrow by a few inches. As soon as he dodged the arrow, their was an ominous silence that followed. The silence shattered Ralph's sudden determination to a mere cowardly stance. He did not know what was coming, for he could not see Archer at all.

Then in only a split second did an arrow graze his arm.

Ralph winced painfully as he quickly clutched his arm. Looking at it he was relieved that the one big cut did not go too deep.

But at that moment Archer appeared before him, his bow drawn all the way back.

"Huh, you're not much of a bright one are you?" Archer said smiling.

"Yeah, well you're not much of a good shot are you?" Ralph mockingly replied back.

"Don't test me wrecker!" Archer shouted pulling his bow back more.

Ralph tried to move, or knock his bow away, but he could not move at all. His arm was getting more painful by the minute, but if he didn't move, _Archer's arrow was going to..._

Unexpectedly he felt himself be transported, blue pixels dancing around him. The last thing he saw was Archer's shocked expression as he left him speechless.

When the ground became visible again, Ralph cautiously looked around. He was shocked to see that his friend Vanellope was right beside him.

"Kid!" he exclaimed, "What are you-"

"Helping you out, doy!" she replied, "Besides, it was her idea to get you out of the way."

"Her?" Ralph asked, "What do you mean?"

Vanellope did not say anything, but instead pointed at something. He followed her direction, only to see that Archer was still some feet away.

And right inbetween the two of them and him, was Lucy.

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She was scared out of her mind as she stood in front of Archer. At first he was stunned at the sudden appearance she had made. Slowly his stunned expression turned to hate, as he pulled another arrow back on the bow. No matter how much she wanted to run, Lucy stood her ground as the arrow was aimed right at her. She narrowed her eyes as she was prepared for the worst to come.

"I really hope this works."

With a whoosh he had let go of the arrow, flying straight at her head. All the world had suddenly slowed down, as she watched the arrow come closer and closer. Lucy closed her eyes and concentrated. _She knew that now was the time to use it._

The time to use her powers.

At the last second, she swiftly stepped out of the way of the arrow. It whizzed past her flying into the racetrack below. She opened her eyes to a sight that sent shivers down her whole body.

Alongside Archer floated a dark shadow, smiling a sharp toothy smile back at her.

"Just like I thought."

The shadow itself was little than him and was attached to Archer, but not from his feet. It was attached to _his whole body_. From what she saw Lucy knew exactly what to do next.

In one quick motion Lucy found herself running towards him. Her right hand was raised in front of her as she quickened her pace. The shadow's smile faded into a look of worry. It pulled Archer back along with it, but Lucy was closing in fast on them.

_"I didn't know I could run this fast! But now's not the time to think of that, I have to try and save Archer."_

With one last step Lucy lunged herself forward, her hand outstretched flat. In one last attempt the shadow tried to step out of the way. But it was too late. With all of her strength Lucy pushed her hand right into Archer's chest, causing him to stumble and lose his balance. The shadow was taken aback by this sudden strength. It detached itself from Archer completely, with it being vulnerable for an outright attack.

Lucy acted quickly by pushing the now dazed Archer out of harm, with him collapsing behind her. The shadow was still too stunned to move or to act. _"Now's your chance Lucy!"_

With another running start, she outstretched her hand once more. With sheer force she pushed her hand into the shadow's form. It screeched and cried as she touched it with her hand flat on its figure. A light shone from Lucy's hand as she pushed down on the shadow monster. Her face lighted up, _"It's actually working!"_

In an instant, the shadow itself disappeared in a small blast of light. Lucy's eyes widened as she watched the lights slowly fade as the shadow became no more.

"Whoa!" she whispered.

For the first time in her life, Lucy was amazed at her locked away powers she had not used for 9 years. She had thought the magic powers she had as a child were lost to her long ago. Lucy looked down at her hands, in which the light coming from them had faded away entirely. She looked at them for a long time, wondering what secrets they held. _If only I knew..._

"Ungh...what in the world happened?"

She looked up from her deep thoughts, turning to find that Archer had sat up rubbing his head. As soon as she set eyes on him he looked right in her direction. As she stared back Lucy could not decide whether to stay back or go to him. _For she did not know if he was fully out of the shadow's control_.

"ARCHER!"

The voice made Lucy jump in fright. She blinked curious eyes as suddenly a little boy ran past her rather quickly. He ran right into Archer's arms crying and sobbing, but his sobs were happy as if the boy knew Archer well.

Dazed Archer stared down at the little boy clutching to him very tightly, with a look of confusion on his face. Then he wrapped his arms around the boy, cuddling him deeper into the hug.

"Garren!" Archer sobbed, "I'm sorry that I scared you."

Lucy smiled at them as she watched them embrace. _"They do know each other. They must be close friends or brothers it looks like."_

"Lucy!" Vanellope's voice called out to her.

She looked in her direction curiously, tilting her head. Then she noticed that Ralph was next to her, and he did not look good at all.

Quickly she ran to them, with a look of worry on her face.

_"Please be alright Ralph."_

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**A/N:** I hope you guys liked this chapter, it was pretty hard to write. Well it was sort of a writer's block, but I finally managed to write it. The next chapter there's going to be some racing involved, as well as other things. So until then, I will see you next chapter guys!


	10. Chapter 9: Minute to Win It

**A/N**: **I have finally returned! That writer's block was so hard to shake! But thank goodness that I was able to finish this chapter and upload it. So guys here is the 9th chapter to my story! This has got to be the longest, monstrous, painful chapter I have ever written. I just hope all that writing does not go to waste. Anyways, enjoy this one my lovely readers!**

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 9: Minute to Win It

Archer's mind was racing with so many questions. Everything went fuzzy as he tried to remember what had happened to him. The first thing he remembered was the night at the DDR party, where he had encountered Lucy. The night where the wrecker had gone into harm's way just to protect her.

The night that he had met a terrifying creature.

His first thought then was to remember who or what that creature was, and why it had taken control over him.

"There must be a reason...a reason that it took control of my mind and made me almost-"

He gasped as he realized what he had almost done, going out of his way to find Lucy and put an end to her. Not realizing that he only wanted to tell her something that he had held back for a long time.

"I'm such an idiot." he muttered frustratingly.

"Why? What do you mean?" Garren's voice said from beneath his hug.

Archer was silent still not letting go of his friend. He looked around for Lucy, but she had strangely disappeared. Archer narrowed his eyes in confusion still looking at his surroundings.

"Where are we?" he asked, a blank expression coming across his face.

"We're in _Sugar Rush_ Archer. The candy go-kart game over by the Whack-A-Mole." Garren answered muffled by his bear hug.

Archer kept looking around dazed. "Huh, no wonder this place smells of candy and sweets." he muttered.

At once Archer got onto his feet letting go of Garren in the process.

"Where did Lucy run off to?" he said turning to Garren.

"Over there. I think the wrecking guy is hurt or something." Garren said pointing in the direction of the racetrack.

Without hesitation Archer proceeded to follow in that direction. He hoped that he did not do too much damage, or even get someone hurt. For he would never forgive himself if he did.

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The pain grew more and more as Ralph cradled his wounded arm. No matter how much he tried to tend his arm it would only get worse. The pain was getting hard to bear, and he knew that right then from when the arrow grazed his arm.

The only other thing that Ralph could think about to make the pain stop was what he had seen Lucy do. Not only was he shocked by the events that had occured, but he was also _amazed_. He had never seen Lucy so serious before. _It was strange,and yet...it all felt as if he knew right from the start._

"Ralph!"

He looked up to whoever called his name. It was the familiar voice of Lucy, who was running as fast as she could towards the two of them. Ralph smiled at her feeling his cheeks grow red as she came closer.

"Ow!" he winced realizing that Vanellope was doing her best as well to try and wrap his arm.

"Would you stop moving you big baby?!" she scolded him.

"Hey it really hurts you know!" Ralph fumed as he held his arm away from her.

"Well I wasn't the one who got a gash in their arm, am I!" she replied with a smirk.

Ralph was now fuming, but always felt this way around the kid. He could not help himself, she was his best friend after all.

"Are...you okay?"

It took all of the strength to supress the red glow in his cheeks. Lucy was looking him right in the eye, her big golden eyes full of concern but still filled with curiousity.

"I'm fine, really. It's nothing." he said managing a smile.

"Except that you can't seem to hold still!" Vanellope huffed, "What about you girlie, are you alright?"

"I'm fine." she replied smiling.

"Wait, you two know each other? When did that happen?" Ralph asked turning to Vanellope.

"Yeah, we met here in Sugar Rush." Vanellope leaned in closer to Ralph, "She's pretty...interesting." she whispered.

Ralph could only nod as the three of them remained silent. All the while his wounded arm was becoming too painful to bear.

"Ralph...your arm." Lucy exclaimed.

She took his arm, making him wince in pain again. He quietly groaned in pain as she gently held his huge arm one hand, and placed her other on top of his arm. Lucy then looked down at his arm intently.

"What are you doing, girlie?" Vanellope asked.

Lucy did not answer, still seeming to concentrate. Ralph gave a look of confusion back at Vanellope. She returned the same look.

"Lucy, I'm okay. Don't worry about me." he tried to persuade her.

Lucy still said nothing as she still fixed her eyes on his wounded arm. Ralph followed her eyes down to his arm, and got to see it fully for the first time.

His arm had gotten darker than before, with some black spots around the wound. A redness grew around where the arrow grazed his arm. _"No wonder there was so much pain." _he thought, _"But...what are these black spots?"_

Before he could ponder it over, Ralph was astonished to see that his arm had started to glow.

"What in-"

Ralph's eyes immediately turned to look at Lucy, and was amazed to see her glowing radiantly. Her eyes were more golden than before, shining in the glowing light that surrounded her. He looked down at his arm again to see that from where she placed her hand, his arm was slowly beginning to heal. For a moment Ralph could not believe what he saw. His eyes widened as he gazed in awe, not moving at all fearing that his arm would get hurt again.

Then the glow subsided, and Lucy slowly let go of his arm. She closed her eyes, still seemed to be in another place. Ralph looked down at his arm, and saw no trace of any injury at all. He gasped silently, blinking several times. _Is this...real? Did she just...heal my arm?_

"Whoa!" he heard Vanellope say in awe.

"Yeah." Ralph whispered, "Whoa."

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Lucy could feel this strange power fade away as she let go of Ralph's arm. Wanting to try her powers again, she had amazingly healed Ralph's arm. As she closed her eyes, she could feel this strange power still churning inside. _As if it had been there all along._

"How...did you **do **that?!" she heard Vanellope's voice exclaim.

She still kept her eyes closed, and did not say a word. The strange power was now slowly fading away with each passing moment. Lucy became confused, wondering how she was able to summon her powers at all.

A noise made Lucy snap out of her thoughts, realizing that the noise was footsteps that came from behind her. Still keeping her eyes closed she tried to concentrate on getting back this strange feeling again; but the noise kept snapping Lucy out of her concentration.

"YOU!"

Lucy flinched at the sound of Ralph's booming voice as she heard his footsteps stomp away from her.

"Wait! I can explain what happened!"

_"I recognize that voice." _Lucy gasped, "Archer!"

With that she finally opened her eyes wide. Turning around sure enough she saw Ralph and Archer up on the hill. Ralph was eyeing at Archer intently, while Archer (no longer seeming confident) was doing his best to stay out of the reach of Ralph's huge fists.

Lucy blinked a few times as she remained motionless, watching the two of them arguing.

"Ahh, those idiots!" Vanellope exclaimed sarcastically, "You've just saved our skins, and now they are at each other's throats!" she turned to Lucy and gave her an annoyed look.

Lucy smiled back down at the little kid, making Vanellope look at her confusingly.

"Hey girlie, aren't you going to stop them?" Vanellope asked her.

"Hmm?" she replied dreamily.

Then she noticed Vanellope had gotten close and was right in her face.

"They are up there fighting each other! You've got to do something about it!" she yelled at her.

Lucy blinked a few times, shocked by Vanellope's concern about something like this. She looked back to the two guys, who were still going at each other.

"I-I'll try." Lucy stammered nervously.

She stood up on her feet, brushing the dust off of her dress. She then started to walk up the hill towards them. Lucy knew that what she was doing was really scary for her. _But she had to stop them somehow. _

"Please! I only want to talk to her!" Archer's voice wailed as Lucy came closer into their range of hearing.

"You almost tried to hurt her!" Ralph's voice boomed in reply.

Now Lucy found herself running the rest of the way. She stopped just behind Ralph as he was facing Archer head on, poised to strike at any moment.

"Wait Ralph!" she shouted, "Let me talk to him!"

Surprised Ralph turned around to face her, apparently shocked at her sudden appearance. Lucy smiled warmly at him, patting him on the hand as she passed by him without any trouble. Now she could see Archer fully, his face having been striped of all of his courage as he stood before her. As she got closer to him, she saw Archer bow his head in shame. She could tell that he wasn't trying to kill her anymore. _He was asking for forgivness for what he had done. _

"I'm-I'm so very sorry." he whispered sadly.

Lucy now stood in front of Archer, looking down at his bowed head. She did not know what to do. _"On one hand, I could treat him still as an enemy...but...he never did anything wrong to hurt me."_

"I never meant to hurt you Lucy, you've got to understand." Archer whispered auidibly only to her, "Please you've just got to."

She stared down at his small figure, her eyes not wavering from his lowered head. Then, she found herself smiling warmly once more, and her big eyes growing soft and big with warmth as well as her smile.

"You're forgiven Archer." she said softly.

Lucy extended her own hand towards Archer as he looked up at her in bewilderment. He stared at her outreached hand, still bewildered by what she had said. He reached his shaking hand and took hers, giving her a weak smile. Lucy smiled warmly back at him as she shook his hand firmly twice.

"Come on then, let's go!" she exclaimed happily letting go of his hand.

Lucy turned and skipped happily as she passed by the watching eyes of Ralph and Vanellope, who were as speechless as Archer was.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

"What...just happened?" Ralph questioned Vanellope as he watched her skip away down the hill.

She replied with only a confused expression and a small shrug.

"She just..._forgave me._ Just like that." Archer said breathlessly.

Ralph turned back to Archer's small figure. He was just as bewildered as Ralph was, his eyes clouded with questions without answers.

"I thought...she would be angry with me, not cheerful."

"That was...rather odd, but..." Ralph rubbed the back of his head, "...I figured that she was a forgivable person."

"Why do you say that Ralphie." Vanellope asked him.

Looking at her Ralph gave a little smile, "Well...because she's never angry. Lucy always seems to be happy no matter what."

"I still can't believe she forgave me that quickly." Archer mumbled.

"I HAVE AN IDEA!" Vanellope suddenly shouted making Ralph flinch.

She hopped off his shoulder, running off towards Lucy's direction. Blinking once, he followed her as she glitched away. When he finally caught up with her, Ralph was out of breath. _The kid was fast, it's hard to keep up with her now._

"Lucy!" Vanellope called.

Quite suddenly he saw Lucy's head pop up from out of nowhere. Her curious expression made him a little uneasy as he felt his cheeks glow red again.

"Hey guys!" Lucy smiled waving her hand high.

Ralph felt his cheeks glow red as he came closer to the girls, who were now talking happily to each other. In the corner of his eye he saw Archer strode up behind them keeping his distance from Ralph. He gave Archer a gentle look to his nervous expression, but was still ready to stop him if he had any ideas.

"No...hard feelings I hope?" Archer said weakly.

"For now." Ralph replied.

"Ralph! Come on, I need you for something!" Vanellope's voice called him.

_"This something had better be worth it." _Ralph muttered to himself as he walked up to the two girls leaving Archer behind him.

Lucy smiled up at him innocently, but Vanellope gave him a knowingly look.

"Ralph...i-if it's okay with you...I would like to try racing." Lucy stammered looking down at the ground.

Ralph gave her a confusing look, turning to Vanellope. She only grinned back at him as if she knew what was happening. He turned back to Lucy and smiled warmly down at her.

"I think that's a great idea." he said warmly.

She looked at him fully, her golden eyes having grown wide with glee.

"I can?! Really?!" she exclaimed happily.

He couldn't help but smile back at her energetic happiness.

"But...I don't have a kart." Lucy said, suddenly frowning.

She crossed her arms, frowning in thought. Ralph did the same thing, crossing his huge arms across his chest.

"How about...I help you build one?" he spoke slowly.

As soon as he said those words, Ralph felt Vanellope nudge him in the arm unawares.

"Really?!" Lucy excitingly exclaimed.

"Yeah sure, why not." Ralph nervously grinned showing his gaped toothed smile.

Lucy's eyes got bigger with glee as she seemed to glow with happiness. Suddenly she grabbed him by the hand and tried to lead him somewhere. He felt his cheeks grow warm as she took his hand.

"Come on then! Let's go!" she joyfully exclaimed as she tried to pull him along.

"Lucy, the bakery is that way." Ralph chuckled pointing in the opposite direction of where Lucy was dragging him.

She looked where he had pointed, a look of puzzlement coming over her face.

"Oops!" she smiled, "Um...you lead the way then."

He chuckled lightly as he lead Lucy by the hand towards the bakery seen in the distance.

"Have fun you two."

Ralph turned as Vanellope gave him a wink. He rolled his eyes and gave the kid a sarcastic look. Narrowing her eyes she smiled smugly at them before glitching away towards the racetrack, leaving the two of them walking alone towards the bakery. Suddenly he realized that he was still hanging onto Lucy's small hand. His heart was now pounding in his ears like drums.

_"I'm holding a girl's hand!" _Ralph thought in awe as they kept walking.

Lucy meanwhile was swinging her other free hand back and forth, happily humming quietly to herself. She was still smiling brightly, glowing with pride and joy at what was about to unfold. Like she had forgotten the danger that she was in only moments ago.

"So...you got to make your own karts to race?" she asked him curiously.

"That's what I found out when I first met the little guttersnipe. Vanellope I mean." Ralph corrected himself realizing she did not know the names he called the kid.

"Oh, I wonder what mine would look like." she joyfully cried softly.

"Well...first you got to make one, then we'll see." he replied chuckling softly again.

They walked along in silence as the columns of the bakery became bigger in their sights. He felt her hand squeeze his as she looked up at the colorful smoke billowing from the columns. She gazed at them in awe, her smile growing bigger and bigger with each passing moment.

"Come on Lucy, over here." he squeezed her hand gently, being careful not to crush it.

She blinked once, then followed him as he lead her down through the gate that lead to the bakery.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Going through many twists and turns, Lucy felt herself almost lost as she blindly followed Ralph through the building. She still clutched her hand in his, not daring to let go for fear of losing him. Finally they stopped inside a curtained room with nothing but a red button in the center. Slowly Ralph let go of her hand, gesturing towards the giant red button on the floor.

Hesitantly she step forward looking down at the glowing button. With one foot she stepped on it lightly. Suddenly the whole room lit up with more buttons, this time on the walls. Curiously she gazed at them all, which held different pictures of karts on each one.

"Which one do I pick?" she said aloud, still in complete bewilderment.

"Which ever one you like." she heard Ralph reply softly.

She looked around once, and then twice before stepping cautiously off the button on the floor. Blinking a few times she set her gaze on a picture of a kart that seemed big enough for her size. Walking up to it, she lightly pressed on the kart of her choice.

_Blip!_

Lucy flinched as the curtains unexpectedly rose up to reveal another wonderful sight. The room was big, _really big. _It stretched before her in a long, hallway-like manner, stretching as far as she could see.

She turned to Ralph, not knowing what to do next as he caught up with her.

"Now what happens?" she asked.

"Now we make the kart." he simply said.

"You have one minute to win it!"

Lucy blinked in shock, "I only have one minute?!"

"COME ON! HURRY UP!" Ralph's voice bellowed as he ran past her.

She followed in pursuit, but Ralph was so fast that it was hard to keep up with him.

When she did catch him, they were standing in front of wht seemed like the first stage. All there was to work with was a wheel attached to the front facing the first stage. Knowing that she did not have time to figure out what it was, she grabbed the wheel and started to turn it back and forth.

"_What am I supposed to do? I have no idea how to do this." _she worried in her mind.

Facing the stage she saw many things come down a ramp leading to two containers on each side. On the left side Lucy recognized the container as a trash can (seeing that she had seen one before in Game Central Station). The other to the right looked like a bowl of some kind.

A bowl...mixing...

She finally understood what she had to do. She turned the wheel quickly, but carefully putting the contents in their right place. She knew the things that were trash, and the things that were for making and mixing together. Sugar, flour, eggs, milk, they all went into the mixing bowl on the right.

"Wow, that's impressive." she heard Ralph gape in awe. He tugged at her hand, "Come on, we're not done yet!"

_"There's more?!" _Lucy thought as she ran to catch up with him.

The next stage they came across was what looked like a huge oven. The only thing on the platform was what looked like a bike pump.

_"What am I supposed to do with this?" _she asked herself.

Looking back and forth, she tried to figure out what to do, with only 30 seconds remaining. Suddenly she developed an idea. Using quick motions she pressed down on the pump, but it would not go down very far.

"I got it."

Lucy flinched as Ralph cautiously pressed down on the pump. She felt her cheeks oddly grow warm. She shook the feeling off, looking instead towards the big oven. The temperature had steadily increased within the course of a few seconds.

_Ding!_

_"Wow!" _Lucy muttered as what was made of the base of the kart moved to the next stage.

Without hesitating Lucy ran after it, with Ralph following closely behind.

The last stage was full of all different kinds of tubes, each with something different inside. At this time Lucy knew what to do. Standing behind the last device, a cannon-like shooter with a little red button to fire with, she looked for the wheels to the kart first. Her eyes spotted a pair of wheels that were frosted around the edges, with a solid brown cookie in the center. Four times she hit the button hard, and four times it hit exactly on the target. Now she turned her attention to the other candy decoratives.

_"There's so many of them..." _she unexpectedly found herself turning back to Ralph.

"Wanna try?" she asked him smiling.

With one swift motion he took her place at the cannon. She watched with joyful anticipation as he readied his fist over the little button. Then like a hurricane he slammed on the button three times.

The target he had aimed for had held up the first two times. On the third time though, it the glass on the tube had cracked causing it to tilt and fall over. The tube hit the other ones, and they fell down one by one like dominoes. Lucy watched silently as the scene unfolded.

"Oh no, not again!" Ralph groaned frustratingly.

Time's up!

Lucy saw Ralph hang his head low, defeated. She looked back at the messy scene, most of the tubes having fallen over or broken glass. The candy condiments were all scattered everywhere on the floor, but she could not tell where the kart was.

Worried, she ran down the last few steps to the last stage. The only thing she saw there was a box with the picture of the kart that she had picked back in the curtained room.

Congratulations, you did it!

Her heart was beating in anticipation as Lucy waited for the final product to come through the door.

Then the kart slowly made its way through. Although many tiny candies came out before it could even come down the ramp. Lucy found herself staring at what she had made: a messy-looking kart.

She must have been staring at it for the longest time because a few minutes later Lucy heard Ralph's heavy footsteps walk slowly up to her. His head was still hung low in defeat, a look of guilt and sadness was plastered on his face.

"I-I'm sorry. It's just...I can't make anything good...I can only break them-"

"I love it."

A huge smile spread across Lucy's face as she said this.

"You-you do?!" Ralph whispered softly, lifting his head, "Really?"

Lucy nodded her head as her smile kept growing bigger. Then without thinking she did something that Lucy herself did not expect she'd do. Turning to Ralph she jumped right up to his shoulders and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a warm hug. She felt Ralph stumble back a little in surprise from the sudden flying weight of her pummeling into him. Finally realizing what she had done, she felt so embarrassed that her whole face turned red on the spot.

Quickly she let go of him and jumped back down to the floor. Her face was still beet red and warm.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't know what got into me." she stuttered looking down shyly, "It's just...the kart's-"

"It's okay." Ralph interrupted, "You don't have to apologize. Besides...I was worried that you would hate it more than you loved it."

Lucy looked up to see that Ralph's whole face had gone red too. She stifled a giggle covering her mouth with one hand.

"What?"

"I'm sorry Ralph, it's just...you're face is as red as mine!" Lucy giggled louder as she could not control herself.

Ralph's blank and shocked expression to her statement only made it even harder for Lucy to control her laughter. Finally she could not hold it back anymore and bursted out laughing as hard as she could.

"You're right! My face is as red as yours!" Ralph chuckled loudly.

They both laughed in unison for the longest time until all their laughter was pushed out. The red in Lucy's face had slowly faded away as she laughed, as well as Ralph's. They stood there in silence, looking at the beautiful kart that the two of them had just created.

"It's so pretty." Lucy said softly.

"But messy." Ralph chuckled, "Which now kinda reminds me of making Vanellope's kart with her."

"You made Vanellope's kart?"

"Yeah, I did...sort of." Ralph nervously replied.

"So...what do we do now?" Lucy asked.

Ralph grinned broadly at her, "I think it's time to show you how to drive a race kart."

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**A/N**: **Next chapter I will finally get Lucy to race, so hold on for a bit longer. That bakery scene was so very hard to describe, ugh! Helpful and positive reviews are always accepted, see you next chapter guys!**


	11. Chapter 10: The Race Is On!

**Hello guys! I have finally completed the mega-chapter (Or the next chapter here)! To all you guys that were waiting so long for this next chapter, I'm so sorry for the slow update. I had to make sure that everything flowed smoothly. I'll try to make sure to update more quickly, or at least more often. I hope you guys enjoy this one, the racing is finally here!**

* * *

><p>The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts<p>

Chapter 10: The Race Is On!

"Ralph, do I have to do this?" Lucy moaned as she sat in the driver's seat of her kart.

"Only if you want to race." Ralph chuckled.

It had taken a while, but Ralph had finally convinced Lucy to have him help her learn how to drive outside the bakery walls. As they stood over the newly created kart, Ralph could not help but think that this was exactly what he went through when teaching the kid how to drive.

"Okay, first you need to start the kart up." he instructed in a gentle voice.

Lucy gave a confused expression as she searched around the interior of her kart. While she was looking, Ralph took a closer look at his own contribution to the kart.

It was messy, but still retained the shape and form of one. It was a bit bigger than the ones the other kids had, just perfect for Lucy's small figure. The colors were phenomenal, too many to count, but the one color that did stand out was a dark, deep green. On one side of the kart, there where two names carved into the kart with gold and red icing. Ralph's name was imprinted with red, while Lucy's was imprinted with gold. There was a slight touch she put next to her name, but for some reason Ralph could not guess what that thing was, or what it even meant for that matter.

A loud vroom from the kart turned Ralph's attention back to Lucy, who was smiling proudly for finding the ignition.

"I did it! I found it!" she exclaimed proudly.

"Okay, good." he replied back, "Now there's pedals on the floor there."

He pointed down by Lucy's feet as she looked down to see the few pedals that took up some of the floor space.

"Pedals?" she spoke uncertainly.

"The things that make the kart move and stop." Ralph explained.

"Oh...cool." she said awed.

"Now let's see..." Ralph picked Lucy up setting her on top of the kart, "The one on the far right is what you push to make it move; the middle one makes it stop..."

She nodded her head silently, smiling at Ralph as he explained what he vaguely knew about kart mechanics.

"...and then this pedal-wait...oh no!"

"What's wrong?" Lucy asked.

"Aww man! I completely forgot what this pedal does!" Ralph groaned heavily.

He suddenly felt his frustration bubbling up to the surface.

"Well...what does this stick do?"

"Stick?" Ralph looked to where she was pointing. He then remembered what he had forgotten when he looked at it.

"That's the joystick, it helps the kart go faster. And you use this last pedal to help you as well."

"But Ralph," Lucy whined, "I don't know if I'll be able to drive this-"

"It's okay, I'll be there to teach you. Besides..." he knelt down to get a look at her face, "...I've taught my best friend how to drive before, I think I can handle teaching you as well."

She looked at Ralph unsurely, looking down at her bare feet for only a moment. When she did look back at him, she was smiling happily. Ralph felt his cheeks go a light red.

_I've never noticed how pretty she is when she's happy..._

She slumped back down into the driver's seat, checking all of important pedals with her feet. She first tried the brake pedal, which only squeaked since the kart was stopped already. She then tried the gas pedal and the far left pedal at the same time. Unawares she also in the process pushed the joystick forward.

The kart that was softly purring before now roared with the power to move forward. It jerked so suddenly that Ralph lost his balance and fell face flat on the floor. He heard Lucy shriek in surprise as the kart jerked forward a little more, then stopped suddenly a foot away from where he fell. Carefully Ralph picked himself up and walked toward the kart.

"Well, at least you managed to move the kart." he laughed softly as he carefully climbed back on the kart.

Lucy giggled lightly, clutching the coated chocolate steering wheel in her hands. "Yeah that's a start, isn't it?"

"Yep." Ralph sighed heartily, "So...let's try this again, only make sure to _not_ make me fall flat on my face."

"Okay." Lucy replied as her expression faded into concentration.

With the joystick in one hand and the steering wheel in the other, she slowly pushed her left foot down on the far left pedal and catiously pushed the joystick forward. She then pushed her right foot down on the gas pedal with little force. The kart suddenly rolled into action, moving forward inch by inch across the road.

"Look Ralph, I'm driving the kart!" she gleefully exclaimed, bouncing a little in the seat.

He smiled back as her kart kept rolling forward. Without any trouble Lucy put on the brakes, stopping the kart in its tracks. She sat up and turned to face him with an excited smile.

"I can drive a kart!" she grinned happily. But Ralph saw her smile fade away fast, replaced with uncertainty.

"But...am I really ready?" she said softly.

"Yeah, of course!" Ralph exclaimed encouragingly, "They are all gonna like you, I just know it!"

"You really think so Ralph?" she said curiously.

He nodded and smiled down at her as he looked into her hopeful golden eyes. With one hand he gently patted on the top of her head. She jumped only a little as he kept his huge hand on her head. Lucy's golden eyes peaked out from behind his fingers, as the warm smile came back. _Her smile always seemed to warm him up on the inside._

"Alright, let's go meet up with the others." he said gently removing his hand from her head.

Lucy nodded as she turned and started the kart up again. This time, with a little more force, she pressed down on the gas pedal and shifted the joystick forward. With a sudden jolt the kart rocketed forward. Ralph was caught by surprise as he held on as tightly as he could to the sides of the kart.

"Next stop...the racetrack!" Lucy's voice exclaimed happily as the two of them raced down towards the starting line.

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"So...what's your story?"

"Huh?!" Archer turned to the candy haired girl.

"Your story...you know, _how do you know Lucy_?" she stated obviously.

He turned to his friend Garren, who was giving him the same look that he was giving.

"Might as well." Garren urged on.

"Alright wait! First..." Archer turned back to the little girl, "I would like to know your name. And...how you knew my name."

"Vanellope von Schweetz." she replied impatiently, "Obviously I knew your name just yesterday, doy! Now you better explain yourself."

He took a deep breath, putting his bow on the ground that he had been holding in his hands delicately.

"Fine, I'll talk." Archer bellowed lowly, but sadly as he looked at Garren and Vanellope.

The two kids leaned in closer to Archer.

"Here it goes...it was only about a few years ago. Lucy was only a bit younger than me looking like she would be almost 20, which was pretty unusual considering that we don't age. I was just plugged into my game, and the first time I came out to explore...she was there.

She was just...sitting alone. There was no one who came by to talk to her, no one even took a looking glance at her. And being naive as I was just being plugged in, I decided to go talk to her. Though she did not know it, she was very beautiful and all under the cloak she wore. Her golden eyes were just stunning."

Archer sighed lost in thought. Suddenly he heard a snapping of the little girl's fingers.

"Hey! Wake up Mr. Hotshot! Keep going with the story." she sternly glared at him with eyes of curiousness, but annoyed at his actions.

"Okay, okay!" Archer replied, "Anyway, I went over to try and talk to her. At first she was surprised to see someone looking at her, backing away from me when I approached. I tried to say hello to her, but she ran away before I got the chance.

Everyday since then I would always visit Game Central Station at least once, and all the times I came, she was always there."

"So...what happened to you then?" Vanellope asked concerned, "It seems like you really liked Lucy, but...why would you go after her and try to hurt her?"

"It's...because I was someone else."

Both the kids were silent as he blurted out what he think had happened.

"W-what do you mean _someone else_?" Garren voice stuttered uncomfortably.

Archer eyed his companion with concern. With one hand he placed it on Garren's head and rubbed his hand back and forth across the boy's head.

"Someone, or _something_, took control over my body is what I'm saying." he answered calmly, "But, when Lucy...you know... 'took it out of me', I felt so much better than I had been before."

Just as he was about to finish his story, a strange sound came out of nowhere from behind him. The two children noticed it too and turned their heads to the strange sound.

Archer flinched as a hovercraft came from out of nowhere just right above him. He ducked, grabbing Garren as he moved out of the way just in time before it landed onto the ground.

Archer then noticed the two people that were on the hovercraft, a man and a woman. The man was very small for his size, but he didn't seem to mind. In fact he looked quite positive. The lady on the other hand seemed more serious and firm, with her short blonde haired bangs hanging down on her face, and her heavy-like black armor.

"Felix, Calhoun!" Vanellope exclaimed, "What are you guys doing here?"

"We had heard what was going on." said the lady Calhoun, "We wanted to see if you and Wreck-It were okay."

"We turned out okay, no need to worry." Vanellope answered.

"Speaking of which, where is he anyway?" the man Felix asked curiously.

The girl fidgeted nervously a little as a toothy smile came across her face.

"Let's just say...he's on his little date right now." she smiled smugly.

"Really?" Felix gaped.

"Still, I wonder who the girl is?" Calhoun crossed her arms.

Archer wanted to say something about this, but another loud sound interrupted him. This time the sound was on the ground, and coming directly towards the group.

"Here's your chance to find out." the little girl gestured towards the closing in vehicle in the distance.

Looking closer, Archer realized that it was the biggest race kart he had ever seen.

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"Candlehead!"

She flinched and looked at her friend Taffyta, who was staring at her more annoyed than usual.

"Come on and get your kart to the starting line already!" she shouted at her.

"Tell me why we are out here again?" Rancis's voice asked unsurely.

"Vanellope told us that we're going to race against a newcomer." Taffyta remarked, "So...because our friend Vanellope is _president_, we have to follow her requests.

"Who's the newcomer you think?" Candlehead wondered aloud, "Is he or she a new character in our game?"

"I wouldn't know since I haven't see him or her." Rancis responded.

Candlehead sighed as she finally drove her race kart slowly to her spot at the starting line. She looked out beyond the racetrack to the snow caps of the mountains in the distance.

_"Maybe the newcomer will be a kind person. I suppose that would be nice for a change."_

A growing roar of an engine snapped Candlehead out of her thoughts.

"SLOW DOWN, SLOW DOWN!" yelled a familar voice.

_"Is that...?"_

Candlehead turned and looked behind her. She gasped to see the biggest kart she had ever seen racing straight towards the starting line.

"Hey! That's...Wreck-It Ralph!" Taffyta exclaimed, "What's he doing riding on the back of that big kart?"

Candlehead did not answer. She was trained on who was driving the kart, someone she did not expect to see.

_"It's...a young girl."_

She rubbed her eyes thinking she was dreaming. When she opened them up though, the girl was still there, the kart coming as fast as it could towards the racetrack.

Some gut feeling suddenly came over her like nothing she had felt before. Without thinking or hesitation she ran from her own kart towards the oncoming one.

"Candlehead!" she heard both Taffyta and Rancis shout.

Despite their calls for her to come back, Candlehead continued running forward.

She had to know who she was.

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The sudden rush of wind in her face made Lucy feel something she had never had. It was the feeling of adrenaline rushing through the very core of her code. All at once it was as if she had begun a new life, just by pushing the pedal to the max.

"SLOW DOWN, SLOW DOWN!"

Lucy's new feeling quickly faded away as she realized that they were very close to crashing into the starting line. Without hesitation she pushed down the brakes, sending the kart screeching to a sudden halt.

For a moment the kart stood in total silence as Lucy remained motionless.

**THUNK!**

Lucy turned back to see that Ralph had clumsily fell off of the kart. His expression was of pure shock, but also relief that they did not crash. She gave him a small smile and quietly giggled.

"Are you okay?" she asked his fallen down figure.

Ralph nodded without a word, his shocked stare still written on his face.

A tap on her shoulder caused her to flinch and turn the other way. Standing right beside the kart was another little girl. She was about Vanellope's size, but had green hair tied in pigtails and wore pink instead of a mint green. But what intrigued Lucy about this girl was the hat she wore: a chocolate hat with frosting as well as a candle right on top.

"E-excuse me." the girl stammered shyly, "But...I-I could not help but notice your kart."

Lucy blinked in awe at the girl's shy manner of speaking. _Wow this girl is... adorable!_

Without thinking she picked up the little girl and held her closely in a hug. The girl reacted by squeaking highly in surprise, but did not try to pull away. Instead she gave Lucy a rather confused but shy look.

"Oh! Sorry I didn't mean to surprise you." Lucy said apolgetically and put the girl back down.

The girl's eyes looked away shyly as Lucy carefully got out of her kart. She sat on her knees next to the girl, her big eyes full of curiosity and questions. Instead Lucy only just smiled at her.

"My name's Lucy by the way." She extended her hand out to the girl, "What's yours?"

The girl's eyes slightly looked up to Lucy's, then to her hand. With a slow motion, the girl hesitantly took Lucy's hand within her little one.

"Candlehead." she replied softly.

Lucy blinked, "Candlehead? So that why you have a candle on your hat!"

"Yeah." Candlehead agreed shaking Lucy's hand slightly, "So you're the newcomer-I mean the one that going to race for the first time?"

Lucy nodded her head.

"Well...you can't go racing dressed like that." she said looking Lucy up and down.

Lucy looked down at her short, golden dress, "I-I don't have anything else to-"

"Come with me then." Candlehead cut her short. Tugging hard on Lucy's hand, she managed to get her on her feet and a little ways toward the starting line. Hesitantly Lucy followed Candlehead, still not sure what she was really up to.

They stopped short just before they hit the checkered line.

"Go ahead, step on it." Candlehead gestured in front of Lucy to the line.

Lucy stared intently at the line, looming down like a trap set for her.

_"I don't know what Candlehead is making me do, but..."_

With one bare foot Lucy cautiously stepped onto one of the small, white squares.

Instantly it started to glow with a warm light. Lucy's golden eyes widened in wonder as the light enveloped her. The warm light touched her skin, causing her to gasp in surprise and delight. The light then suddenly began to circle around her, transforming her outfit completely.

When the lights did finally disappear, she found herself in an outfit totally different than her own. Instead of the dress being golden, it was the color pink with little peach flower designs scattered all over it. Right in the middle was what looked like a yellow sunlight or a star. With the dress Lucy also noticed that she was wearing a short, orange jacket over it, the sleeves rolled up to her elbows. A pair of racing goggles hung around her neck, which was also the color orange. Her hair which was a mess before, was now tied up in little pigtails on both sides of her head. The only thing that did not change was the fact that she still was barefoot. Lucy smiled wiggling her toes up and down the white square she stood on.

"This is amazing." Lucy exclaimed in awe.

She gave a little twirl, giggling happily with satisfaction. It was then she noticed there was two other kids that were staring at her in awe. She recognized one of them being the girl named Taffyta. The other was a small boy with blonde hair, blue eyes, and wore an orange shirt under his brown racing jacket.

She could not stop staring at the three little racers who were looking at her in wonder.

"Woah! Now _that_...was cool." Taffyta smiled impressed.

"How in the world did you do that?!" the boy exclaimed questioningly as the three racers joined Lucy.

"Rancis!" Candlehead whined annoyed.

"U-um...well, I really don't know." Lucy looked up and down herself once more in a confusing yet happy manner.

"Boy! Wait until Vanellope sees this!" Candlehead smiled wide, "I think she'll be _really_ surprised."

"You think so?" Lucy asked unsuringly.

"Well..." Taffyta gestured towards a small group that had formed by Lucy's kart, "...there's only one way to find out."

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"Okay, what in the name of User are you doing Stinkbrain?"

"Recovering." Ralph replied as he finally managed to sit up.

He looked around to find Lucy, the first-time driver of a racing kart, but wherever he looked she was nowhere to be found.

_"Where in the world did she go?" _Ralph shook his head in disbelief, _"Why is it that I can never find her when I need her."_

"Well, you sure must have been through a doozy to get here." said Felix.

"Felix! Sarge! What are you two doing here?" Ralph' voice said in embarrassment, though he tried to hide it through his surprised happy manner.

"We came to see if you two were alright." Calhoun answered sincerely, " I mean, we heard the rumors about Archer planning on doing something unexpected. So...we came to see if we could knock some sense into him."

"Hey! I'm not that way now at all!" Archer shouted sternly as he approached the crowd.

"Really now?! We'll see about that!" Calhoun snapped back at him.

"Guys, let's not start any fights." Felix said trying to calm them down.

Ralph looked upon his group of friends who expressed very different emotions. The little boy Garren and Felix were intent on trying to stop any more fights from happening. Calhoun on the other hand wanted to teach Archer a lesson; but Archer was intent on not fighting at all anymore than he already had. On the contrary, he actually had a heart to refuse fighting. _Maybe I had judged him too harshly. _

Looking at Vanellope she only just watched in annoyance as the scene unfolded. It was only the sound of three voices in unison did the kid look away from the group.

"HEY GUYS!"

Ralph turned his head around to find the three racers Taffyta, Candlehead, and Rancis walking up towards the group.

"Taffyta! Rancis! Candlehead!" Vanellope ran up to meet the three tiny racers, "Is everything set for the race?"

"Yep!" Candlehead replied with a wide smile.

The four tiny racers continued to converse while behind him Felix, Calhoun, Archer and Garren continued to keep a fight down or start one up.

Then Ralph noticed someone slowly walking up to the group. Ralph immediately stood up as soon as he set eyes on who it was.

"H-hi." Lucy stammered bashfully.

She wore a completely different outfit, a racing outfit as far as he could tell. Her hair was tied up with red bands into two small pigtails. She wore a pink dress this time under an orange racer jacket that looked a little too small on her. The only thing that had not changed was the fact that she did not wear any racing shoes and was still barefoot.

At the moment everyone turned to look at Lucy as soon as she had said something. Lucy had stopped in her venture towards the group. Her expression looked to be shy, yet somewhat afraid.

Taking a shallow breath in, Ralph slowly made his way towards Lucy. His friends watched his every move as he stepped closer to the shuddering little girl standing before them.

His cheeks could not help but turn red a little as he knelt down to look at her.

"Hi." he said calmly.

Lucy finally looked up at him, a smile spreading across her face though her face still flushed with shyness.

The two of them stared at each other in silence. Ralph knew that his friends were all but watching the scene unfold before them. After a long pause, everyone gathered around them, with different looks of curiousness, confusion, and joy mixed in together.

Ralph turned to face the lot as a smile spread across his face.

"Guys, I'd like you to meet my friend Lucy."

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For as long as she could remember, she always felt afraid when standing with a large crowd of people. Yet as Lucy looked at each person in the group, somehow this particular group felt very different from the rest she had encountered before. Suddenly she felt her shyness slowly fade away, replaced with a small smile.

"It's, nice to meet you." she gave a small, polite curtsy like she always did when meeting someone.

The first person that spoke to her was a rather small man who looked like he was the hero of his game. He politely took his hat off and gave her a warm smile.

"I'm Fix-It Felix Jr., ma'm. From the game _Fix-It-Felix Jr._" he said in a humbled tone.

Lucy blinked and returned a warm smile to Felix. The next person was a tall woman who wore a lot of black armor. Her demeanor was rough looking, though she had a softness to her eyes that she hid almost well enough for others to not notice.

"I am Sergeant Tamora J. Calhoun." she extended a hand out to her.

She looked at the hand, unsure of what she meant to do.

"Well, go on! You're supposed to shake it." the Sarge said firmly but softly.

Hesitantly Lucy extended her own hand to the lady's, who took it and shook it up and down a few times. She smiled in amazement as the lady let go of her hand, looking down at her own hand that had gone on this new experience.

"And I'm Garren!" came the sound of a boy's voice.

Lucy looked down to see the little boy, small but with a very determined look on his face. She smiled down at him, and shook his hand as well.

"Alright, alright enough with the conversations! Let's get racing!" Vanellope's voice shouted over the crowd as she and the rest of the racers hurried down to their own karts.

For once in her life Lucy felt so excited to finally be able to race in her own kart for the first time. Without hesitation she raced to her own kart and climbed in without any trouble. Everything came to her like she had learned it a thousand times as she started up her kart and went racing down to the starting line.

When she did get there, Lucy was surprised to see that more racers and their karts had taken their place at the start, their engines reved up for taking off at any second. Suddenly she began to feel nervous: _There's so many racers. What if I don't make it through? Ralph would be worried if-_

Her thoughts were quickly interrupted by the weight of the kart suddenly go heavy. She did not have to turn around to know that Ralph was sitting right behind her. All of the nervous feelings she had now faded away, knowing that she would be safe as long as her friend was with her.

"You don't think that I'm going to let you race out there on your own, do you?" Ralph's voice said warmly, but with a hint of determination.

"Nope." Lucy replied with a smile coming across her lips.

_Ready_. . . .

The sound of the engines around her got louder.

_Set_. . . .

Lucy braced herself knowing the last word to come, gripping the steering wheel tightly. She felt the same feeling of adrenaline she had never felt before go right through her once more.

. . . . _GO!_

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As soon as the one word was said, Lucy's kart rocketed forward ahead of the others, almost throwing Ralph right off the back of the kart. His big hands grasped the sides of the kart tightly, barely keeping his balance intact as well as himself. He took a look down the driver's seat, seeing that Lucy's expression now was of sheer determination and spirit.

_"Just like Vanellope." _Ralph thought as the other karts came up to catch them.

Many of the karts now passed by theirs, including Vanellope's which raced out of both of their sights.

"The other karts are passing us!" Lucy yelled back at him over the roars of the karts.

"Well, let's catch up to them!" he replied with a smile of determination.

Lucy did not have to ask twice as she increased the speed. They passed much of the first stretch now coming up to the first section Gumball Gorge. Looking ahead Ralph noticed some of the characters made it through fine, but others were hit with the humongous gumballs that came crashing down.

With a leap, the kart shot forward right into the gorge. Lucy held onto the steering wheel tightly as she looked in wonder at the huge gumballs coming down.

"Lucy! Watch out!"

She surprisingly gasped as one of them had gotten in their path. With quick determination she turned the kart to the left, barely avoiding the gumball that rolled away out of sight. Though just as they both thought they were in the clear, more gumballs came down the gorge.

Ralph held on for dear life as Lucy barely maneuvered past a few of them. _This is much more dangerous than I thought. And I thought that falling a few stories off a building was scary._

Suddenly a huge gumball came falling right down on top of them. When Lucy saw the big boulder of a gumball coming down she let out a yelp in fright.

As if right on instinct Ralph found himself raising his fist high in the air right above them.

**CRACK!**

The gumball exploded into little pieces with the sheer force of his hit. The both of them lost their balance a little as the remains of it were spewn behind them.

"Woah! That was amazing!" Lucy shouted in amazement directly at him.

He returned with a small nervous chuckle, feeling his face get hot. The speed power boost they had just hit caused Ralph to jolt back, remembering that they were still in the race.

_Alright, no time to mess around. We got to finish this race!_

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Having made it out alive and well from the gumball boulders, Lucy sped up to the next section of the track. Towering above her was a mountain that was in the form of a giant, chocolate cake. On the edge there were little cherries sitting on top of what looked like some sort of cream.

Right at the start, Lucy had to keep the wheel turning left, otherwise the both of them would go falling off into the candy-filled land below. She became very nervous as they made it halfway up the huge cake mountain.

Suddenly Lucy found herself coming right on the tail of a few of the racers. She recognized the candle on top of one of them, realizing that Candlehead was one of the three racers in front of them. She tried to get their attention, but nothing came out of her. She then recalled that right now she had to concentrate on not falling off the mountain.

_"Focus Lucy...focus!"_

Increasing the speed of the kart, she managed to catch up to the three racers without her or Ralph falling off both the kart and the track.

"Hey, it's Taffyta, Candlehead, and Rancis!" she heard Ralph shout behind her.

All at once the three racers turned quickly to look back at the both of them. The looks in all of their eyes were competitive, and Lucy knew then that they were not going to let her and Ralph pass by easily.

On queue the trio increased their speed putting some distance between them. Determined Lucy tried to speed up and catch them, but the kart would not go any faster.

**WHOOSH!**

A sudden push knocked the breath out of her as she felt the kart lurch forward, faster than before. Ralph's strong arms pushed back and forth, propelling the kart forward and deeper into the cake mountain. At last the two of them passed the three surprised racers as they lost their karts lost grip on the road, being surprised of the sudden comeback of Lucy's big kart.

"Woooh!" Lucy shouted with glee as they jumped clear across the gap between the mountain and the road ahead.

They landed roughly on the road, the wheels smashing into the candy-coated track. Lucy gasped as she felt herself fly out of the kart. She would have fallen out if Ralph had not grabbed her around the waist and pulled her back in.

For some reason she found her face get hot as he grabbed her. _There goes this feeling again! What is it that I'm feeling?_

Before she could try and figure out this new feeling, she found herself back inside the driver's seat with the full force of Ralph's arms moving them along the track to the final section of the race.

Lucy suddenly felt cold as the temperature dropped dramatically. Before she knew it Lucy found herself looking at the icy caps of mountains made out of ice cream, towering more above her than the cake mountain they left behind.

And finding herself getting a really bad feeling.

That someone or something dangerous was coming.

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><p><strong>And I leave you with a cliffhanger (once again!)! *laughs manically*<strong>

**Okay, if you guys made it through all of the chapter in one piece, I sincerely congratulate you! Hope to see you guys sooner than later. Reviews make me happy, and excited! Until next time.**


	12. Chapter 11: An Icy Situation

**Oh look guys the next chapter! I hope you enjoy this one! Still looking for suggestions for what art I should draw for both of my fanfictions. **

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><p>The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts<p>

Chapter 11: An Icy Situation

_"Heh, I lost the lot of them! What luck!"_

Vanellope hit the go pedal as far as she could as she entered the final section of the racetrack: the ice cream caps of the Snowy Mountains. She could not help but feel proud of taking the lead once more, like the races before ever since Ralph came into her life.

"_WHO GOES THERE?!"_

She flinched in fright, almost losing her control of her kart. Only when glitching in place did she manage to take back control of her kart. She looked in confusion all around her, only seeing the icy winds of the snow pummeling her.

"What was that? I've never heard a voice come out of the snow and icy wind before. Is this a new upgrade? Or maybe..."

Vanellope gasped and hit the brakes, sending the kart screeching to a bumpy halt. Right in the middle of the road stood a tall mysterious figure.

_"WHO TRESPASSES IN MY MOUNTAIN?!" _a feminine voice boomed out of the icy wind.

_"A woman's voice?" _Vanellope frowned,_ "What's a woman doing out on my racetrack? And what does she mean by 'her mountain'?"_

It was then that Vanellope noticed she held something in her hands: some sort of sharp, icy object that she could not make out clearly. Right then she knew that if she did not get out of there soon, the mystery lady would put her in a whole lot of danger.

With determination, Vanellope pushed the gas pedal down to the floor. The kart roared to life and charged right towards the figure in the road. Yet something happened that Vanellope did not intend to see.

Right before the kart ran right into her, she somehow disappeared right before her eyes.

_"What?!" _Vanellope stopped and looked back for only a second to see the figure still standing where she last saw her. _"Who is this woman?!"_

Shaking the question out of her mind, she was determined now to finish the race as she glitched her kart forward to the Rainbow Cave ahead. The only thing she hoped as she entered the colored cave, was she hoped that her friends would not encounter the woman as well.

Or that the woman would find out about the new racer on the track.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy felt herself get colder the deeper they went into the ice cream like mountains. She had no doubt that the bad feeling she had before, had only gotten stronger with the cold.

_"I can't shake this bad feeling, I wonder what's causing all of this uncertainty all of a sudden."_

Lucy knew that she had these bad feelings before, but they were not very strong. This time though, this particular bad feeling was a strong one. Just then a rather precarious tunnel barely showed in the icy wind around them. All at once she felt afraid, knowing that the tunnel was indeed dark.

Then she remembered that riding on the back of her kart was her new friend Ralph: an apparent 'bad guy' who was the only one who had shown kindness to her. She smiled at him from out of his sight, then gripped the steering wheel tight bracing herself as they came closer to the tunnel's dark entrance.

Out from nowhere, something flew towards them that stopped the kart right in its tracks. Hundreds of what seemed to be icicles flew past and right at the kart. Lucy gasped as a rather huge one came flying right towards her. She shut her eyes tight ready for it to crash into them. Instead she found herself feeling an electrical current run through her being. The next thing Lucy knew as she opened her eyes, the huge icicle shattered right behind them.

_"What just..."_

Before she could comprehend what had happened, a tall figure stood waiting for them right in the middle of the track. A smug smile spread across the figure's face, sending a blast of ice straight towards them.

Lucy could not remember what happened afterward, but the next thing she knew she woke up finding herself lying face down in the cold, white snow. As she tried to get up, she suddenly felt a twinge of pain shoot through her left shoulder.

"Nngh, ow!" Lucy cringed clasping her shoulder with her right hand as she sunk back down into the snow.

She found herself lying in the snow for a few moments, her twinge in her shoulder now burning with an unusual icy feeling. Her right leg felt the same icy feeling of pain as well, yet she could not reach behind her to quell the pain.

Her eyes suddenly bulged out as she lifted her face once more into the icy wind.

"RALPH!" she shouted into the icy wind.

It only replied by howling harder, causing Lucy to shiver in being cold and in pain. The shout she made had only been swallowed up by the snow storm around her.

Slowly she pulled herself up only enough to be sitting in the snow. For that was the only thing she could do before Lucy noticed a cold icicle aimed directly at her.

"Who are you?" a feminine voice boomed through the howling wind.

_"A...woman?"_

Lucy squinted her eyes, for the figure from before was standing a few inches in front of her. Yet the continuous wind blocked her features, making it difficult to figure who the woman was.

"I'll ask you again young lady, _who are you_?"

For a moment Lucy felt afraid, not knowing who the figure was scared her, but what frightened her was the fact that Ralph had suddenly disappeared.

"L-Lucy." she replied trembling, "M-my name is...Lucy. I-I don't know who you are, p-please...can I see you?"

The figure hesitated, lingering in the storm for a moment, before she took a step forward to finally reveal who she truly was.

She was a very beautiful lady that stood tall despite being a woman. Her white hair that had traces of light grey in it blew softly in the cruel icy wind. Her eyes gave a piercing, icy blue look, while her pale skin resembled the white snow falling around them. She dressed in the same blue color as her eyes, a long flowing dress that bear snowflakes all around it.

"Hmm...Lucy? What a peculiar name." she said coldly yet with curiousity, "Though for some reason your name sounds..." the figure stopped mid-sentence suddenly turning the other direction. From out of nowhere another cold icicle formed in her hands at the sight of a bulking figure walking in the blizzard towards them.

Lucy saw the woman stood her ground as Ralph came towards the two of them.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Ralph never expected to find a woman standing inbetween him and Lucy. Still keeping his stern frown he advanced towards them, his fist clenched to his sides.

"Who are _you_ supposed to be?" she said, though her voice faltered as he came into full view.

Just slightly he raised his fist only a little, before one of the sharp icicles in the woman's hands flew straight at him. A small gasp came from Lucy as with ease he knocked the icicle down, shattering into tiny pieces. Ralph knew he was lucky to have his big hands for more than wrecking buildings.

"How did-"

But before she could finish Ralph charged towards her with both fists risen high in the air. They crashed down sending snow flying everywhere, but when he looked closer, the woman had disappeared out of thin air.

He stood his ground confused, but determined to find the woman before she did something dangerous.

"My name is Eris." a voice echoed in the howling icy wind, "Queen of Ice and Snow. I have come to find the one who is destined to defeat an evil enemy..."

"What are you talking about?!" Ralph shouted back into the emptiness.

"An enemy that is very hard to defeat." Eris's voice continued on, ignoring Ralph's question, "And I think that I've found the one I'm looking for."

This time the voice originated from behind him, in Lucy's direction. There the woman stood right behind her unnoticed by the girl. Her arms were crossed as she bore a smug smile.

Lucy turned with a look of fright as she stood towering above her. Ralph without a thought rushed towards Lucy, hoping to get to her before Eris did.

All of a sudden a familiar glitch shot right out of the Rainbow Tunnel straight at Eris. Surprised she disappeared in snowflakes, ducking out of the way. In one swift motion the glitch gulped up both Ralph and Lucy, suddenly rushing down back into the cave.

Ralph blinked to find the glitch belonging to none other than Vanellope.

"Kid!" he exclaimed.

She gave a salute back to him, "Thought you two needed a lift!"

He blinked once more, looking down at the confused face of Lucy, who looked up at him in return.

"Hang on then!" Ralph told her as he wrapped one of his arms around her while keeping a firm grip on the back of Vanellope's kart.

She grabbed on to his gripping hand in return and leaned forward. The kart raced down through curves, dips, and jumps, until at last the kart speeded out of the cave into the sunlight.

Ralph looked back towards the now fading tunnel exit, _"Who was this lady? Why did she go after Lucy?"_

As if right on qeue, he regretted to see an icy trail follow up behind them. In what looked like an icy board, rode Eris with a smug and determined smile.

"Here I come LUCY!" she exclaimed with an evil grin.

"KID!" Ralph exclaimed holding Lucy tighter now.

"Hold on!" she replied.

With one turn the kart spinned and reeled straight off the road and racetrack altogether, into the rough landscapes of Sugar Rush.

Despite having made a daring move, Eris was still right behind them.

_"Oh User this is bad!" _Ralph worried as he found that they rocketed towards Diet Cola Mountain.

At this time Lucy had now grabbed onto his lower arm and had pressed herself against him. Another glitch from Vanellope sent the three of them forward a few feet, but as soon as they hit ground Eris from out of nowhere appeared in a flurry of snowflakes in front of them.

"Oh sweet-" Vanellope stopped mid-sentence as she and Ralph noticed a sudden powerful golden glitch came over the whole kart, rocketing them right between the two sugar-free lollipops that hid the secret entrance. In the distance he saw Eris's expression show pure shock as they disappeared into Vanellope's hiding place.

With a loud crash the three flew straight out of Vanellope's kart into the pretzel-coated walls of the mountain. Ralph found himself upside-down, with the kid falling flat on her back and Lucy falling sideways with a look of shock on her face. The three of them sat or lay still for one quiet moment.

"Well, that certainly was an interesting race." Vanellope said breaking the silence.

"One race I'd like to not have again." Ralph replied with a grumbling sigh.

He slowly turned himself right side up and looked towards the secret entrance. To his relief the woman Eris did not follow them.

"So...now what?" Vanellope asked him, glitching up to his shoulder.

"Well..." Ralph looked back at the still shocked Lucy. She showed no sign of moving, but gave him an embarrassed smile.

"...I guess we should just stay here until she's really gone. Then go back and find the others."

"Aww! And I was just this close to winning!" Vanellope whined, pinching her fingers to show how close she was.

She glitched off of Ralph and ran deeper into her hiding place as he returned to Lucy's lopsided figure on the floor.

"Are you okay?" he asked with concern.

She nodded silently in return, without looking up at him.

"Alright, something's definitely up with you." Ralph sighed softly. He then proceeded to pick up her little body in his hands and lift her off the ground. Lucy fidgeted with surprise as he picked her up, now looking at him fully into his eyes.

"What's wrong?" he asked her warmly.

She bit her lip in concentration, but then sighed and gave up.

"I-It's...just that I was worried that we would not make it is all." she said softly.

He noticed that in her big eyes tears were welling up. All at once he realized that she was starting to cry. Knowing that what he was going to do was something he only did with the kid, Ralph pushed Lucy closely to him, wrapping his arms around her whole little body.

He heard surprised, choking sobs come from Lucy as he hugged her tightly against him.

"We're safe now Lucy. You don't have to be scared." he softly replied feeling his whole entire being turn red with honey glow.

In a few seconds afterward, Lucy's tiny arms wrapped around his neck as she hugged him back tightly. Her face lay down on his shoulder, hiding her crying eyes as she softly sobbed. Ralph could not help but smile warmly down at her trembling figure, seeing someone new come out so suddenly from her.

"I'll always be here for you." he whispered sweetly, his cheeks turning more red by the minute.

After what seemed like eternity, the two of them finally broke the hug and stared at each other. Lucy's golden eyes still held their curious gaze after all the tears she shed.

Ralph sighed in relief that this race was finally over, even if they did not cross the finish line.

"Oh no! I just realized that I lost the kart we made!" Lucy exclaimed in worry, finally coming back to her original child-like nature.

Ralph laughed knowing that in all the commotion that they actually did lose the kart. Lucy giggled as well when she saw him start to laugh.

"How are we going to get it back?" Lucy asked him after a few giggles.

"I don't know." he said, but faded out when he realized that Lucy had never seen the inside of Diet Cola Mountain before.

"So, do you want to see something new and cool?" he asked with a gaped tooth smile.

Lucy nodded as she giggled a little harder than last time.

"Then let's go!" he exclaimed running forward with Lucy tight in his arms.

She squealed in excitement as he rushed forward to catch up with Vanellope.

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><p><strong>Small Note: I do apologize if this chapter is short, but there is a good amount of action in it. Plus the next chapter I'm doing is going to be about answering questions about Lucy, how she got teleportation powers like Vanellope, and more about her backstory. I love seeing reviews, they make me smile. Tell me what you think. <strong>

**Until then, see you next chapter!**


	13. Chapter 12: Stories of the Past

**Okay get ready for a long chapter, because this one's a doozy! I didn't realize it would be this long, but in respect this is full of a lot of backstory. Also a new character that I was dying to write. I hope you enjoy this one!**

**A/N: I am going to let you guys know before I forget, I'm going back to college soon and might not be able to upload any chapters at the time. Of course I'm going to be continuing the stories, I will just be busy so much with college stuff and homework that I might not have enough time. But if I do have any time, I promise I will be working on the next chapters with a vengence! Also if anyone is a deviantart member, I'm holding my first ever contest with my character Lucy and Ralph! My username is PureAngelDragon713 and here's the link to the journal (if it works): journal/My-First-Ever-Contest-473715549**

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><p>The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts<p>

Chapter 12: Stories of the Past

"Augh! I lost them, how could I be so stupid?!"

Eris paced back and forth, her mind racing from what had just happened.

"One minute they were right in front of me, but **_then_** the kart just happened to teleport in a golden light right past me! I can't even believe-"

She stopped right in her tracks. _"Wait...golden light? Impossible! The little girl's kart glitches in __**pixel blue**__, not gold. This could only mean..."_

"Aww, are you lost 'Ice Queen'? What a shame!"

Eris frowned as she turned to look at the voice coming right next to her. A young man stood there, staring her down with the most annoying, determined smile that she knew only belonged to one person.

"**_Arren_**! I thought as much, where were you?!"

His smile only grew wider at her outburst. She groaned in frustration.

"It's not my fault! I only did what you told me to do, seek out the girl with the glitching powers." he replied smoothly, "Boy though, that girl is sure a hard one to catch!"

"And definitely a fast one at that." Eris grumbled.

"So what happened to you that let them get away?" Arren coaxed her on.

"Arren, so help me..."

"Come on! You know something that I don't!" he sang teasingly.

"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! WOULD YOU JUST ZIP IT FOR A FEW SECONDS AND LET ME EXPLAIN?!"

Arren paused, his smile turning into a pouting frown.

"FINE!" he whined crossing his arms.

Eris gave him an angry look before continuing: "I had the three of them in my range, but then a golden light appeared..."

"That's odd, doesn't the kid's kart glitch a pixel blue?" Arren interrupted.

With one swift motion Eris threw a handmade snowball right at his face. It splatted ice all over his face making him cringe.

"OW! Those things hurt my face you know!" he grumbled.

"Well, then you should let me finish." she replied with one eyebrow raised.

Arren open his mouth to protest, but hesitated and returned to his pouting frown.

"As I was saying, they disappeared in the gold light, and lost them at Diet Cola Mountain. I don't know how but...they were just, _gone_...out of thin air."

For a moment the both of them fell silent as Eris finished.

"So what do we do then? Wait until they come out?" Arren asked.

Eris thought about it, true they did disappear into the mountain, but there was no entrance to the mountain at all from what she could see.

"There is no choice, we will have to." Eris sighed as she sat herself down on a fallen trunk of a candy tree.

"Eris...are you sure she is the girl?" Arren sat next to Eris looking her in the eye, "I mean, you've mistaken other girls before you know."

"Arren," Eris looked him in the eye, "I'm positive this time. She's the one who can stop _him_."

She looked up at the mountain. _"If only there was an opening somewhere. Maybe at the top of the mountain or-"_

Suddenly Eris sat up straighter, looking solely at the top of the mountain. She grinned deviously and turned to her companion.

"Arren." she grabbed him by the cheek, making him cringe a little, "How would you like to find out what's on top of the mountain?"

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy could barely see in the dim light of the caves as Ralph raced forward with her in his arms. Yet she did not seem to be worried at all, finding herself giggling and laughing for what seemed like the first time in a long while.

Finally the two of them reached a place that Lucy could not believe she was seeing. In front of them was what looked like a boiling lake of thick liquid. Yet what surprised and awed her was when she looked right above. Thousands of individual slabs hung from the tip top of the roof, _almost like stalactites_, she thought.

"It's about time you two birdies caught up."

Vanellope's voice echoed through the big cavern as she stood in front of them.

"Birdies?!" Ralph questioned. He put Lucy down carefully, leaving her to confront Vanellope, "Kid, you are the most diabolical of all my friends to date!"

"Why thank you, stinkbrain! Such a compliment to a child!" Vanellope replied teasingly.

Lucy could not help but giggle to herself as they continued calling names to each other. That was when she noticed a little sign right next to the boiling pit.

"Diet Cola Hot Springs..." she narrowed her eyes as she read the sign, "Watch out for, falling Mentos?"

Lucy tilted her head back up to the ceiling where the stalactites of tablets lay stuck on the roof.

_"I wonder if these are the mentos?" _Lucy thought with curiousity.

Then she looked down, searching for something small to throw. She found a tiny rock, and threw it as far as she could upwards. Barely it hit one of them at the bottom, but it did not budge an inch. Lucy sighed sadly, disappointed that she did not move a mentos from it's spot. As soon as she decided to give up, Lucy heard a crack from the mentos, and it fell straight down into the boiling cola springs below.

Curious as to what will happen now she moved a little closer, but before she could step any further, she was tugged back suddenly by Ralph's hand around her whole body. Confused she wondered why he would, but as she looked back at the springs she saw that where the mentos hit, boling cola bursted upward in the sky.

While Ralph was apparently afraid, Lucy felt awed and excited about this new thing she found. She gripped slightly on one of Ralph's fingers, watching the cola spew droplets all around them.

"Cool." she found herself mumbling in awe.

"Yep." Vanellope replied with a huge smile on her face. Lucy in return smiled brightly, glad that Vanellope agreed with her.

"Guys! It's boiling hot cola!" Ralph sternly said, "Who knows what could have happened if the whole thing came down on us!"

"Well I would just glitch us all out of there, like _last time_." Vanellope replied with a huff.

"Last time?" Lucy asked curiously.

The two of them turned their attention to her, sharing the same curious looks as she had.

"I-It's...like in the story right?" she stammered, yet still was curious.

The three of them stared at each other in silence, making Lucy think that she had said something off or wrong.

"Story? You mean...the game-jumping one?" Vanellope asked after a long while of awkward silence.

Lucy nodded in return slowly. She finally let go of Ralph's hand realizing that he had let go of her. She then thought of an idea, her smile growing wider with that thought.

"Could you guys tell me the real story?! Please, please, PLEASE?!" she pleaded with glee.

Ralph and Vanellope did not answer, for they were surprised at her sudden outburst.

"Well, I mean I thought...since you guys were really there that, I mean..." she stopped mid-sentence, not knowing what else to say. She looked down feeling as if she had embarrassed herself with that idea. _How could I be so-_

"Sure."

Lucy lifted her head slightly to face Ralph, who had agreed with her. She felt her happiness suddenly come back, making her feel joyful again.

"But...let's make a deal with this."

Lucy tilted her head, confused and curious.

"Ralph, are you taking deal tricks from me?" Vanellope questioned teasingly, having glitched up onto his shoulder yet again.

"Yes kid I am, taking a child's methods of 'making a deal'." he replied, quoting the last part with his huge fingers.

At that Lucy giggled a little, finding she enjoyed their company the more they argued with each other.

"So...what's the deal then?" she asked curiously.

"Okay," Ralph knelt down to her level, "I'll tell you what really happened that day one year ago, if...you tell me more about you."

She felt her heart drop at the mention of telling them her past. _No one had ever wanted to know about her past at all. _

But Lucy was also afraid that talking about her past would not only hurt her, but her new friends as well.

"I...I can't." she replied turning away from them, feeling tears stinging her eyes.

"Why not?" Vanellope asked.

"I JUST..._can't_." Lucy shut her eyes trying her very hardest not to let them see her broken like this. In her heart Lucy knew if she told them her story, they would surely get into serious trouble. _More than they can imagine. More than I can. _

Something warm on her shoulder caused her to flinch. She looked down at her shoulder and realized Ralph had put a warm hand there, engulfing all of her shoulder with his one hand.

"Lucy, why won't you tell us about yourself? Are you...scared?"

When he said that, Lucy turned to look at his face. She felt guilty when she realized that Ralph was giving her the most sincere, kind look that she had ever seen. Of course she knew that Ralph was kind already, but to see him looking so concerned about her...

"Well...I-It's just, my past life is not a happy story and...I-I don't know what would happen if I told it to you guys." Lucy turned to face the two with guilt and sadness weighing down on her, "I mean...you two are the first friends I have ever made since I came here, and I, well...I don't want to lose you to tell you the truth."

"Girlie, you have a lot to learn about us."

"Huh?" Lucy said, giving Vanellope a look of puzzlement.

"Listen, I'm sure that your story is a lot better than the story of a glitch who for years was considered to be a mistake by her own friends!" Vanellope pointed to herself, blue pixels glitching around her.

"Or take me, spending most of my life living alone in the garbage, with no friends or anyone that cared about you." Ralph pointed to himself with a small smile, "I'm sure your story must be better than that."

Lucy looked at her two friends. She could not believe that a small child and a gentle giant had gone through more terrible cruelties and hardships than she could imagine. For a moment she felt sorry for what they had gone through. Yet as she looked at them, she could not help but feel that for some reason she was more open to them than any other person she had ever met.

Lucy sighed as she ruffled slightly with her tangled mess of hair, "Alright, you've got a deal."

She extended a hand out to Ralph's, who gladly took her hand into his.

"Deal." he said slowly shaking her hand.

"Hey! I want to shake hands too, I'm with this deal remember?!" Vanellope slipped her hand inside Ralph's and Lucy's hands and started to shake as hard as she could.

Together they managed to do a three-hand shake, then let go all at once.

"Well...I guess I should go first." Lucy giggled slightly, "But I don't really remember too much about my game, it's been a long time since I've told someone about my game."

"Ah, don't worry about it girlie!" Vanellope called, "I think we'll be able to 'understand it enough'." she nudged Ralph on the side of his head.

"Hey, I'm not that dim kid!" Ralph protested with a chuckle.

"Sure." Vanellope teased nudging his head again.

Lucy giggled to herself, lucky to have them cheering her up at every turn.

"Okay then, let's see...where do I even start?"

"At the beginning?" Vanellope said obviously.

Lucy thought long and hard by what the 'beginning' was supposed to mean. Then she remembered suddenly a story that she used to read as a child.

She looked around and found a pretzel stick lying just at her feet. Grabbing it she put the tip of the pretzel into the boling cola, and with her artistic instincts coming on, started to paint out in thin air with the cola covered pretzel stick.

"I guess...it all began with the story of the first queen of Maic."

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

"Do you see anything up there?" Eris called into the sky.

She stood at the foot of the mountain, looking up to see if she could see Arren anywhere. A moment ago he had gone all the way up to the top of the mountain, helping Eris find an entrance.

"Yeah, I think I see something!" he shouted back down.

"Well, _what is it?!_" she shouted back.

"There's a small opening in the mentos roof! Though, it's not big enough to fit us both!"

"Are you **_serious_**?!" Eris yelled in frustration. _"How in the world are we supposed to get in if we can't even fit through the entrance?!"_

"Can I come down now?! My wings are _killing me_ flying around at this rate!"

"FINE!" she shouted angrily.

A flapping sound grew louder and louder as Arren came down from the mountain. Though he was not a man, he had in fact transformed into a crow, black feathers and all. He landed and perched right on Eris's shoulder.

"Would you get off of me?!" she said waving her arms to shoo him off her shoulder.

Arren flapped his wings, once off of Eris transformed back into his regular self.

"Honestly, I don't know why you insist letting me have you stay."

"Aww come on Eris," Arren took her hand in an affectionate way she did not like, "You really are a sourpuss, but inside your just a big softie for me."

"Oh shush, and let go of my hand!" she angrily glared pulling her hand free of his grasp.

"Alright, alright! Don't get mad, sheesh!" Arren crossed his arms, looking away.

Eris sighed, knowing that finding this girl had taking a toll on the both of them, especially herself.

"Look, I'm sorry Arren. I just need to know if she is the right one."

"And what if she's not?"

Eris flinched at the sudden dark tone in his voice.

"Eris, we've been searching for 9 years to find her, and not once did we find any trace of her powers."

"Until now that is." Eris pointed an accusing finger at him, "Do you know how long I've waited to find her? How long I had to endure these shadows that kept coming after me?!"

She found herself trying her hardest not to cry and show her emotions. For one thing she was strong, but inside it was a bomb of emotions waiting to explode.

"Of course I do Eris! That's why I've sticked around this long with you!" he blurted.

Eris gasped slightly at his outburst, letting slip a smile across her lips, but before Arren could see it she hid it away just as quickly as it came.

"Right, now about the entrance..."

"Yeah, right." Arren looked away from her to face the top of the mountain, "It is possible to go through it, but there will be a pit of boiling cola at the bottom though."

"Unless...there's a bridge below." Eris smiled, having formed an idea.

"Oh no! _Please_ don't tell me you mean to jump right through the hole?!"

Eris turned to Arren's worrisome face and grinned.

"That's _exactly_ what I plan to do."

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

"Oh boy, a picture show!" Vanellope squealed excitedly as she glitched down into Ralph's lap.

Having sat down to watch, he did not hear what Vanellope had said or seen her glitch into his lap. Ralph instead was entranced by Lucy's story through her pictures forming from thin air, impressed of her making a pretzel stick and some boiling cola become her paintbrush.

"I remember this story from when I was a child." Lucy began:

'Once there was a place named Maic, which was a peaceful village before a kingdom grew there. There was nothing to fear or to fight for, because it was filled with good people that treated everyone equally.

But one day something came unexpectedly. We don't know exactly how it came to be, but all we knew was that it had very evil intentions. They were simply called _shadows_, because they did not have a true form, and they were not human. The village fell to the shadows, and a peaceful town was replaced with people who lived in fear.

That is...until the first queen of Maic came. Like the shadows, the people of the town did not know where she came from. This time though, the girl fought on the village's side, and managed to repell back the forces of the dark shadows and its evil. From then on the kingdom of Maic was born, and harbored a temporary peace with the shadows gone.

But then one day the shadows decided to come back, but this time they became stronger and more powerful than before. The queen realized that in order to push back the darkness once more, she needed gifted people who had extraordinary powers beyond belief.

So she sent for anyone who possessed any such power. What she recieved in return were young children and adults that had magical powers. So taking them in she trained them to control their powers, and sent them to push back the dark shadows once more. They did suceed, but only for a little while. The shadows just kept coming back, and were more powerful than the last time. Then...'"

Ralph looked at her in puzzlement as she stopped mid-sentence. She looked very troubled about something, but he did not know what.

"Then...what?" Vanellope's question snapped Lucy's attention back to them.

"Well, that's actually all I can remember." she replied with a smile.

"Aww man!" Vanellope whined, making Ralph chuckle.

He then turned his attention back to her, as she stared at her own handiwork. While telling the story, Ralph had witnessed a progression of well drawn pictures to go along with it. First, was what the village looked like in peace, then what appeared to be the _shadows_, then a vague image of what was apparently the first queen. Yet the queen's features were all but blurred, as if Lucy did not know what she looked like either.

He smiled as he kept looking at the pictures, fascinated by her being an expert in anything artistic.

"Well, I guess since you know the story about my game..." Lucy said, sitting down and turning to look at them, "...I guess I should tell you my story."

Seeing that she seemed nervous and fearful, Ralph gave her a comforting smile.

"Go ahead." he said warmly.

She stared at him unsurely, but then she gave a small smile back at him and took a deep breath.

"Well...when my game was plugged in for the first time, nine years ago, many gamers came to play our newly plugged-in game. It was after that same game day, I came into existance."

"After that same day?!" Ralph and Vanellope exclaimed at once.

Lucy blinked in surprise, "Y-yeah, weird isn't it?"

"It's definitely unusual, that's for sure." Vanellope replied.

"Well I don't think it is!" Ralph blurted out unintentionally.

The two girls looked at him with puzzled expressions.

"You think so?" Lucy said with a weak smile.

He looked down feeling very embarrassed, "Yeah, sure. I think it has happened before."

"So, what happened then?" Vanellope said after a while of silence.

Lucy took another breath in, "Right, after I had appeared at first everyone thought that I was a glitch in the game. Though it turns out that I am part of the game, and when everyone found out about it...they just, left me alone. I did not know what to do at first, since I was new and all. But as the gaming days went by, I found out that I never even got to be played by any of the gamers."

"What? How can that be?!" Vanellope said loudly.

"Well...if you are a part of the game, isn't it allowed for the gamers to play you as one of the charcters?" Ralph asked her.

"Yeah, but for some reason no one could play me." Lucy sighed sadly, "When I was a child I did think that I was a mistake, but...my sister thought that I was someone special."

"Sister? You have a sister?" he said surprised.

"Well, sort of. Daisy was my only friend, and she treated me like I was her sister."

"Hmm, Daisy. That's a pretty name." he smiled at the thought.

"Yeah." Vanellope agreed, "It is pretty, though I do prefer much cooler names!"

"Like what?" Ralph asked turning to his little friend.

"Well...there's...um...okay I can't think of any right now, but I do like cool names!" Vanellope spluttered in frustration.

"Alright kid! I get it!" Ralph laughed patting her on top of her tiny head. She tried to push off his hand, but it was no use.

After finishing patting the kid's head, he turned back to Lucy, "So what happened then with you two?" he asked nicely, not wanting to seem like he was rushing her.

Lucy smiled, "We would go off on adventures, the two of us, through our game. I remember the game being so big that you can't see the end of it!" she chuckled slightly as she said it, "Though, we could not go outside into the other games in the arcade because well...we feared that those on the outside would want to take over our game."

She sighed as her smile faded, "So the game was isolated from everyone out here, no one could go in or come out through the tunnel. Sometimes I felt like I was trapped in a box or a cage, with no door or exit. Though...the worse came when..."

Lucy hugged herself tighter than she had before, making Ralph feel concerned about her sudden pain. He extended his hand out to her, softly patting her on the head.

"You don't have to tell us that much if it's too much for you." he said softly, ruffling her messy hair.

"I-I don't?" she looked up with confused but curious eyes.

"WHAT?! RALPH!" Vanellope whined.

He turned to look at her with his hand still on Lucy's head, "Kid, I think we can pretty much figure out what happened!"

She looked at him puzzled for a minute, her eyes narrowed on his. Then slowly her eyes began to show understanding as she nodded a few times slowly.

He turned back to Lucy, still looking upset as she had hugged herself tighter.

"Hey, don't feel too bad. From what you told us, your story isn't as bad as ours."

"Yeah girlie!" Vanellope chimed in, "You're not the only one who doesn't have a happy beginning."

Lucy's eyes at that moment peaked out beneath Ralph's fingers out of sheer curiousity.

"Is...is that really true?" she said softly.

"It's true for me, trust me." Ralph chuckled lightly, "I know, I've lived 30 years of my life living with no friends or anyone who appreciated me."

"30 years?!" Lucy's eyes widened, "You've been here for 30 years?!"

"Yep! This stinkbrain is almost as old as Pac-Man is!" Vanellope exclaimed gleefully.

Ralph rolled his eyes at the mention of his nickname.

"So...I guess we should tell you our story then." he said, smiling down at Lucy.

She nodded and gleefully sat up to listen, her eyes full of wonder and excitement.

He gave her a warm smile, relieved that she finally was back to her normal self.

"Well let's see...I guess I should start out with my game's backstory." he started a nervous grin on his face.

"'To start, I lived on my own land, with a tree stump as my home. Then one day the residents of Niceland came and built an apartment building on my own land. I got angry at this, so I vowed to wreck and tear down the building to take back my own land.

Felix, or Fix-It Felix Jr., is the good guy and it is his job to fix what I wreck. And that's the name of the game. It had always been that way for 30 years. The hardest part though, was that no one treated me differently outside my game. I would always be the bad guy...'"

Ralph found himself sadly sighing remembering the life that he used to have, living alone in the garbage, not having any friends, people running away from him.

"I never knew...that you felt so lonely." Lucy's warm eyes pierced his with sympathy and comfort.

He smiled at her in return, "Yeah. Um...thank you." he patted her head once more, making her smile brightly.

"So...you did something that surprised everyone right?" she asked still smiling.

"That's right. On the 30th anniversary of my game I decided that, well...I did not want to be the bad guy anymore. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was as good a guy as Felix was. And the only way to show that was winning a medal. So I..._game-jumped_.

I found out that _Hero's Duty_ was a game that you can earn a medal. But...let's just say that the game was, too much for me. I managed to get the medal, but also unleashed an evil bug in the process. And then I met this smartie right here..."

Ralph pointed over to his little friend, who seemed to have brighten up at the mention of her.

"And **_I_** took that medal from him." Vanellope remarked with a sly smile.

"**_And_** you were the one that caused me to fall in that taffy swamp. and made me look like a taffy monster!" he retorted back with the same smile.

Vanellope blew a raspberry, blowing some hair out of her face. She crossed her arms with defiance, "In my defense, I thought that his medal was a gold coin."

"**_Anyway_**, if I can get on with the story, after the kid took my medal she used it to enter herself in the Random Roster Race. Though the only problem was that she was a _glitch_, and was not able to participate in any of the races-"

"So we made a deal." Vanellope interrupted, causing Ralph to scowl at her, "I said to him 'You help me get a kart, a _real_ kart, and I'll win the race and give you back your medal!' In which this stinkbrain agreed on with some coaxing."

Ralph rolled his eyes in annoyance. _"Why does she have to call me that in front of her?"_

"So we broke into the Bakery," Vanellope continued, "And Ralph helped me build a kart _and_ teach me how to drive!"

"So, _that's _how you knew when you were teaching me Ralph!" Lucy said happily looking at him directly. He felt his face go beet red.

"Well, I had never done it and..." he flustered as he tried to control his face from burning red.

"Still he was able to teach me." Vanellope finished for him, "Though I did hit him maybe more than once."

Lucy gaped and giggled at the kid's remark. This made Ralph's face finally turn a bright red.

"KID!" he shouted at Vanellope with embarassment running through himself.

He realized that he must have shouted too loud, because Lucy and Vanellope both looked at him with shock and curiousity.

"Your face turned red again." Lucy said tilting her head curiously.

It was then Vanellope gave him a look telling him that she knew why. _"Oh no! __**Please**__ don't let Vanellope tell her what it means!" _he prayed to himself.

"Ralph, what happens then?"

He snapped out of his thoughts at the question Lucy gave him. Suddenly he remembered that the story wasn't finished.

"Oh right, sorry. After I did teach the kid how to drive, we were on our way to the race. But then King Candy found me, and told me Vanellope would die if she won the race."

"Why?" Lucy asked curiously, but in her eyes showed worry.

"Because glitches can't leave their games is why." Vanellope replied. She had a sad expression written on her face, knowing what had happened that day.

"I-I had to...destroy her kart, after she gave me her own medal." Ralph continued fighting the urge to choke with tears, "I realized then that being a hero wasn't about winning a medal or trying to be someone you're not..."

"It's about being yourself, right?"

This time both he and Vanellope gaped in shock at Lucy. She gave a small smile and waited for someone to answer.

"Y-yeah, that's right." Ralph stammered, "But...how do you-"

"Know? Well...a very close childhood friend taught me that." Lucy replied.

Looking at her Ralph realized that she seemed to be distressed, as if something were haunting her. Though her expressions and emotions did not show it, for some reason he felt insdie that Lucy had gone through more pain and suffering than he had thought.

"Well, when I did find that out I came back here." he continued on, "Felix helped fix Vanellope's kart, and she was able to race.

But the bugs had multiplied in numbers, and had ambushed the starting line. I did my best to push them back but it was no use. I tried to get Vanellope out of the game, but she could not leave. That was when I thought of using a beacon from this mountain to destroy the bugs once and for all. I was willing to sacrifice myself to save her, my only friend who understood how I felt..."

Ralph stopped mid-sentence and sighed. Shaking his head he looked down upon the two sleeping girls, the kid having fallen asleep in her sponge cake bed while Lucy was sleeping peacefully on the ground next to her.

Getting up slowly, Ralph walked over to the two sleeping forms and yawned. He realized that he was now sleepy too. _Well...at least we'll all get a good reset._

Taking one of the blankets that now replaced the candy wrappers from Vanellope's bed, he wrapped one around each of them. Vanellope snuggled into the blanket just after Ralph had put it on her. And when he covered Lucy with the other blanket, she did not move an inch but a satisfied smile spread across her sleeping face.

With another big yawn, he sat himself down against Vanellope's bed. Having sandwiched himself between the two girls Ralph gave into a sudden deep slumber.

His dreams were a blur, but the only dream that he could see was a repeated dream with the same girl in the bright, golden light. A dream that never left his mind, but a figure that he could not forget.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy woke up with a start, realizing that she had fallen asleep.

_"What happened? I only felt my eyes droop a little, and then next thing I know they were closed..."_

Slowly she looked around the amazing big cavern that she could not believe was here. Finally her eyes focused on the two sleeping figures next to her. Vanellope was sleeping peacefully on a bed that looked like a small cake. She giggled to herself, finding the cake bed adorable to her. She then turned her eyes to Ralph's figure. He was deeply asleep as well, but instead he was leaning back against the bed instead of on the ground.

_"That's a very odd way to sleep." _Lucy thought to herself, smiling at the sleeping giant.

He breathed in slow and steady, his chest expanding out and in. Watching him made Lucy feel her face grow warm, as well as having her smile grow wider. In an instant, she felt her eyes grow heavy again with sleep.

Slowly she rubbed her eyes and sat up, the blanket around her collapsing a little from her shoulders. Drawing them closer to her, she ventured a little closer to Ralph. She suddenly trembled when she felt something inside flutter with joy.

_"What is this feeling?" _she wondered drawing closer to Ralph with each flutter she felt.

Lucy's heart was pounding as she finally had closed the gap between her and Ralph's sleeping figure. Without thinking, she leaned her tired head right onto his huge chest. As she lay still next to him, she thought that she could hear something warm beating inside.

_It's faint, but...it feels very powerful and warm..._

Suddenly she felt Ralph stir from his sleep. Lucy began to feel nervous, afraid of what he might think when he sees her head lying on his chest. But as Lucy open her eyes to look at him, she sighed in relief as Ralph had gone back to sleep, but not before she noticed that he had placed a big, warm hand gently around her middle.

Her whole face now felt hot as she gaped in shock at his hand. For some reason she never really got to see his huge hands up close, only when she was drawing them. But now she noticed that his hands were block-like. She gently touched them not wanting to wake him, and felt that the skin was very firm yet it had a softness to it. Though she was not cold, his huge hands were as warm as blankets that she did not need the one she had on her shoulders.

Feeling herself grow weary with sleep, Lucy smiled and placed her head once more on Ralph's heaving chest and fell into a rather peaceful sleep. All in the while not noticing that she was in fact glowing a golden light.

* * *

><p><strong>I am going to have so much fun writing more about Eris and Arren! I hope you guys liked it! Reviews are always appreciated. See you guys!<strong>


	14. Chapter 13:Powerful Courage and Monsters

**A/N: So after months of school, procrastination, sickness, and other sorts, I finally, FINALLY uploaded the next chapter. I'm so sorry to any of you still reading this story that I took so long to write it and share it with you. These days my life is busy and I don't get enough downtime to write. But I will continue to do my best and complete it. So without further ado, here is the next chapter, I hope you all like it.**

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 13: Powerful Courage and Monsters

Eris huffed and breathed hard as she stopped to rest at the top of the mountain. It had taken her a few hours just to get her footing on the mountainside, then another hour just to scale the mountain successfully.

"Arren! Why would you not help me climb up here?!" she yelled at him as soon as she caught her breath again.

"You seemed like you had it covered." He replied with a devilish smile.

Eris let out a loud, frustrated sigh at him.

"So…what now your Royal Iciness?" he asked hesitantly.

Eris looked down at all the Mentos that lay beneath her feet. Small bits of ice began to form around her feet, causing the Mentos to shudder under the cold weight.

"We go down the hole you saw of course!" she replied loudly, but then when she looked around, she could not find the hole anywhere, "Where is it anyway? You didn't lie to me did you?!"

"No, no! It right there." Arren pointed to a slightly small hole hidden in the large cluster of Mentos in the middle of the mountain.

Eris stared at the small opening, _"This opening is definitely too small to fit anything except one person at a time. But perhaps…"_

She diverted her attention to Arren again, who had in turn transformed himself into a crow again.

"This hole is too small, but perhaps we should do something else."

"What would we do instead then?" he asked curiously, flapping his wings uncertainly in the air.

Eris formed a sly smile, knowing that what she had planned would indeed work.

"The only way we can get to Lucy, is to _bait her_ up here."

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Ralph's eyes opened slowly, still feeling sleepy even though he had slept like a rock. At first he thought he was still dreaming, because he saw golden light surrounding him. But as he opened his eyes wider the light disappeared, but was instead replaced with the narrow eyed smirk of Vanellope.

"Good morning Stinkbrain." she said coolly her smile growing wider, "Did you get some good sleep with your new _friend_?"

"Kid, what are you talking about?" he replied groggily.

Her smile only grew as wide as it could, annoying Ralph as he rubbed his eyes with one hand. Looking down toward the ground he was surprised to see something that he did not expect.

Ralph's face went completely red, his heart skipping a few beats, when he saw Lucy sleeping calmly right on his chest. For a moment he could not speak or move, his eyes never looking away from her sleeping figure resting calmly on him.

"This is so precious, what a lucky guy you are." Vanellope cooed.

Ralph's temper started to flare, "T-that's not funny kid, cut it out!"

"Okay alright, Mr. Softie!" she replied laughing.

Keeping his temper barely in check, Ralph slowly removed Lucy from his chest, shifting onto his knees. He picked her up and carried her onto Vanellope's bed where she curled up in her sleep.

"Come on kid, we got to find her kart." He huffed after staring at her sleeping figure for a moment.

"She lost it?! How could she lose a kart that big?!" Vanellope exclaimed following him to the entrance.

"Well when you're being chased by an _Ice Queen_ with good intentions of taking Lucy, then that's how!" he exclaimed back, temper flaring.

Vanellope did not say anything more until they were outside the mountain. Her arms crossed she huffed as Ralph led the way.

Suddenly he saw something move from above. He followed the movement up the mountain until he was looking at the top of Cola Mountain.

"Now what are you looking at?!" Vanellope huffed in irritation.

"Shh!" Ralph whispered trying to hear what was up there. It was then he realized there was something wrong, very wrong.

"What is it?" Vanellope whispered jumping onto his shoulder.

"Something's up there." he replied pointing at the top of the mountain.

They both looked at each other, thinking the same thing. Lucy was indeed in trouble.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Hearing noises outside her dreams, Lucy slowly opened her eyes. She rubbed her sleepy eyes awake, curious as to what the noises could be. She looked at her surroundings, realizing she was still where she was, inside the mountain full of broiling hot springs of Diet Cola.

_"__Where did Ralph and Vanellope go?"_ she wondered as she looked around to find their whereabouts.

Lucy realized then that she was moved to Vanellope's sponge bed, which felt very soft and plushy. A noise distracted Lucy from her thoughts, making her look down. To her surprise she found a black kitten, mewing and pawing at the sponge cake.

"Hi there little kitty." She giggled reaching her hand down to pet it. But before she could touch it, the kitten ran away at a strangely fast speed up the ramp to where the broken racetrack was. Quickly she swung her legs down from the sponge cake and ran right after the kitten.

"I'm going to get you." She said with determination as she caught up to the kitten.

The kitten simply mewed in reply and ran to the edge of the broken bridge over the cola hot springs.

"Wait a minute, watch out kitty!" Lucy exclaimed. She grabbed the little black kitten just in time before it took another step.

"Whew, that was close right-"

Lucy gasped at what she held. The kitten seemed to have changed into something else, not being a kitten anymore. Instead what she held in her arms was the claw of a hawk. The hawk flapped it wings upward, causing her to be lifted off the ground toward the ceiling.

"Hey, put me down!" she yelled at the bird. But the hawk did not listen, climbing higher and higher towards the Mentos ceiling. There it flew through a small hole that came from out of nowhere, carrying Lucy with it.

She soon found herself plopped down onto a Mentos floor. She looked around to see there was no ceiling above her, and ridges of the mountain side climbing above her.

_"__This must be the top of Diet Cola Mountain."_ She thought looking in awe.

"Lucy, we meet once again." A familiar voice called.

She turned to see the familiar face of the Ice Queen named Eris staring at her with a smirk. The hawk that had been a kitten before perched on her shoulder, and seemed to be smirking at her too. _Am I seeing things?_

"W-who are you really?" she asked nervously backing away from them.

Eris stepped forward, closing the gap, "I am Eris remember? I'm not here to hurt you in any way. I was trying to find you."

Confusion spread through Lucy's head, and uncertainty filled her voice, "Find me? What are you talking about? You were trying to hurt me before, why should I trust what you say?!"

"Yes I know that I had hurt you before," Eris responded, "but this time I'm telling you the truth. We need you and your powers…you're our only hope of getting us home."

"Us?"

The hawk that perched on Eris's shoulder suddenly transformed into a human man with jet black hair and electric green eyes. Lucy stood still, unsure of how to make of this.

"Wait…y-you have magic? Then t-that would mean…"

"We all come from the same game, _Shining Magic_." The black hair man replied.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Archer pushed with all his might against Lucy's kart up though the gumdrops.

_"__Why is this so heavy?!"_ he huffed as he pushed the kart one final stretch up through the gumdrops, ending up close to a mountain that looked like a soda bottle.

"We made it!" Garren exclaimed. He was sitting in the kart, not of any big help at all.

"I know!" Archer gasped out of breath.

When Archer and the others found out that Lucy, Ralph and Vanellope had gone missing, he and Garren set out to find them. Instead they found Lucy's empty race kart, toppled over in the snow. With the help of Calhoun and Felix they were able to get the kart fixed up with Felix's hammer and back right-side up. One of Vanellope's friends named Candlehead suggested that they were at Vanellope's secret hideout at the mountain shaped like a soda bottle. For hours Archer was stuck with pushing the kart there, because the kart would not start at all.

Now as Archer looked upon the mountain, he wasn't quite sure where a hideout would be in a big mountain like this with no openings at all. As he was trying to figure out how to get in, he heard strange noises coming from the top of the mountain. Tilting his head he tried to see what the noises were.

From what he could tell from the far distance they were, Archer was able to spot three figures atop of the mountain. One was a female figure with what seemed like silver hair, the other was a man that was black and gray. The third figure looked familiar to him as he looked closer.

_"__Is that…LUCY?!" _Archer gasped softly.

"Hey, what's the matter Archer—WHOAH!" Garren almost fell off the kart as Archer pushed with all his might towards the mountain.

_"__Something's wrong. Where is the giant Ralph when-"_ Archer speeding to a halt. At the bottom of the mountain stood Ralph and Vanellope, who were also gazing up at the top where Lucy was.

He looked over at Garren, who was shaking his head from him pushing the kart as fast as he could.

"Sorry about that." Archer said apologetically, but inside he was still wondering how he could be so apologetic all of a sudden.

"Hey look!" Garren said suddenly pointing upwards. Archer looked up, and to his surprise saw the giant scaling up the mountain himself.

_He really is dedicated, I'll give him that._

Not as rushed but still quickly he pushed Lucy's kart up to the bottom of the mountain where Vanellope stood, gawking and smiling.

"Vanellope, what's going on?" he asked coming up to the little girl.

She turned suddenly as if she was startled. "Don't scare me like that!" she snapped, making Archer flinch.

"Sorry, didn't meant to surprise you it's just…."

"No need to spill apologies right now." Vanellope interrupted, "Ralph thinks Lucy's in trouble."

"WHAT?! That's horrible!" Garren exclaimed having gotten out of the kart.

"I know. He's going to see what's up there, I just hope girlie's okay." Vanellope replied worriedly.

Archer looked at the little girl quizzically. She sighed annoyed, "I hope _Lucy's_ okay. Do I need to spell out everything to you Arch Man?!"

"No." he retorted turning upwards, "And why are you calling me that? My name's Archer."

Vanellope smiled, "I like calling people names. It's what I did to Stinkbrain when I met him."

He sighed not looking at her. Archer was more worried about what was going on up there.

_I hope she's okay._

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy could not find any words, their words sinking into her brain. _There are actually characters from __**my**__ game, standing here before me. How did I not know? How did I miss them?_

She had so many questions to ask, but inside she was still scared. Lucy knew that right now she could not trust them, even though they were from her own game. Slowly she kept backing away trying not to seem desperate.

"W-why did you bring me up here?" she finally said plucking up the courage.

Before someone could say anything, Lucy felt herself losing her balance. She stumbled for a moment, trying to regain her balance until she finally fell down on her back. By the time she was able to sit up, Lucy could already tell something was either wrong or someone had set off an earthquake.

Someone that she already knew.

Right across from her was a giant that she knew well.

_"__Ralph!" _she smiled suddenly feeling a lot safer.

Eris and Arren having noticed her looking in Ralph's direction turned to face him. They seemed ready to fight him as well as he was.

Then everything happened fast right before her eyes. One minute Arren was the first to charge straight at Ralph, the next thing she knew was another quake made her stumble as she tried to stand up. This time she was able to keep her balance using her knees. Yet as she kneeled keeping her balance, she felt them getting warm. Looking down Lucy suddenly realized that they were standing on a very hot mountain waiting to explode hot cola.

_"__This isn't good at all, what should I do?!" _Lucy panicked unmoving.

All at once, and all so slowly, she felt the ground move from beneath her. Scared that she would fall, Lucy remembered vaguely from before how Ralph, Vanellope and she managed to avoid Eris by transporting past her.

_Like a glitch._

She closed her eyes and concentrated on transferring herself on the ridge of the mountain. It didn't take more than a few seconds to realize that she had already teleported there. She gasped sharply and suddenly trying to keep her balance on the very small ridge.

"LUCY!"

Shocked and worried Lucy looked down to find Eris staring up at her, a frightened look spread across her face. Determined she squatted down and stretched her hand out to her.

"Take my hand, hurry!" she shouted down to her.

For a moment Eris hesitated to take it. She looked into Lucy's eyes as if she didn't trust them.

"Please, hurry! You can trust me!" she reassured Eris's doubts about her.

Just as quick as she finished saying this, her hand instantly grasped hers. Eris's hand felt cool within Lucy's warm hand, as she took Eris's hand with both of hers. With all the strength she could muster, she pulled Eris up onto the ledge with her, all the while barely keeping her balance.

"Y-You saved me." Eris said surprised after a long pause.

Lucy gripped onto Eris's hand, not knowing what to say to her shock. Simply, she just smiled and squeezed her hand.

Eris looked at her as if she did not understand who she was with. With a confused but determined look, she raised one hand down towards the two boys still fighting. Lucy saw to her surprise an ice-made staff form out of nowhere into Eris's hands, and with one small swing she sent ice towards the two fighters below.

When the ice had all but melted and cleared, the quakes had stopped. Lucy felt the mountain harbor back into its slumber.

"Would you guys **control yourselves**?!"

Lucy flinched at Eris's sudden sharp shout down below to Ralph and Arren. To Lucy's surprise, the two characters had also flinched at Eris's outburst as well.

Arren shrunk a little from Eris, but Ralph stood his ground despite his shock.

It took a lot of effort to balance herself from falling, but Lucy still managed to stay on. _Don't look down._ She told herself.

"Why should I?! You're after Lucy!" Ralph shouted back at her with such anger in his voice that made Lucy curious and confused.

"True. But you're misunderstanding why I am!" Eris shouted back at him.

"I understand plenty!" Ralph gritted, his tone becoming more angered.

Lucy stood completely helpless as Eris and Ralph exchanged shouts back and forth. She looked over at Arren to see that he was shrinking farther away from the battleground. Lucy blinked and tilted her head in his direction, only to make him shrink back farther.

Out of the corner of her eyes she suddenly saw a little flash of colorful wings fly past her. Following it she spread her arms and turned having let go of Eris's hands unsuspectingly. She smiled widely as she gazed at a beautifully colored butterfly.

_"__It's beautiful." _Lucy looked on at the butterfly for a moment, then frowned turning back to her companions, _"Can no one else see this?"_

Yet when she turned back the butterfly was gone. She sighed sadly, not happy that the butterfly suddenly had disappeared.

_What this a sign? Or does it mean something?_

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden loud screech. She closed her eyes, her hands covering her ears from the sound. _It hurts, what is that sound?!_

When she opened her eyes, looking down she found herself standing on nothing but air. Lucy's eyes widened as for a moment she stared far down the mountain. Then everything happened at once.

She felt herself fall quickly, her breath lost in the sudden depths she was falling from. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. Then from above Lucy thought she saw something dark and shadowy, but her eyes stung with tears making Lucy's eyes close shut. She knew that if she hit the ground, she was done for.

_I don't want to die. I don't want to…_

She couldn't finish, for some reason she felt herself slow in her fall. When Lucy open her eyes, she yelped in surprise.

She found herself floating down in a pool of light.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Eris almost stumbled as something flew past her. She ducked out of the way safely, falling once again into the inner mountain.

_What in the world was—?_

Looking back up where she had stood, there was no one in sight. _Lucy was gone._

_How could she let her out of her sight?!_

Eris knew that Lucy was indeed the special girl she hoped to find. But she never expected her to be so kind and courageous.

From out of nowhere Eris found herself suddenly scooped up. She gasped in protest and shock, finding that the giant named Ralph had picked up her and Arren. He ran towards where Lucy had disappeared, making Eris start to worry about his actions.

_You're out of your mind! Are you trying to get us killed?! _She wanted to say, but kept shut.

It was within seconds that the giant jumped right over the ridge and down the mountain side. Eris looked to Arren, seeing he was as shocked as she was. Determined to not hit the ground hard, she blasted packets of soft snow from her hands onto the ground below. She must have blasted just enough as the three of them softly landed into the piled snow.

"Cold, cold, cold!" she heard Arren shout his teeth chattering.

Sighing annoyingly she dispersed the snow as quick as it came. She then turned to Ralph, who looked baffled yet angered by what had happened.

"You should be grateful I saved our lives!" she snapped defensively before he could say something.

The giant just stared at her, his eyebrows furrowed angrily. Arren on the other hand sneezed and shivered even though the snow had gone.

"Arren you are so sensitive." She retorted.

"It's not my fault that I suddenly got soaked in snow!" he shivered.

"Well excuse-!" Eris stopped suddenly turning away from them. What she saw made her shudder inside.

A shadow stood watching them, its eyes piercing through her skin.

She knew then this was trouble.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

He knew that the figure he was staring at was a shadow. He had seen two before: one that Lucy had pushed him out of the way of, the other possessing Archer.

Now there was a true shadow standing before him.

Something whizzed by Ralph's head, making him duck down his head. A glimpse of silver caught his eye as it pierced at the shadow. An arrow.

Archer stood just a few feet behind him, with his sidekick Garren clutching him from behind.

"Ralph!"

A tiny glitching Vanellope slammed right into him, knocking him by surprise a little.

"Kid, you're okay." He whispered grabbing her tightly.

A screech sent shivers down him as he looked to find the shadow angrier than before.

"No, it didn't affect him at all." Archer said reaching for another arrow.

Garren clutched tightly to Archer, fear written on his face.

Ralph did the same to Vanellope, worried that she was in danger as well as the rest of them.

The shadow charged toward them, but not before Eris could get off a blast of ice. Yet the ice had no effect on it either as it swiped the blast away and towards him instead. Quick on his feet he dodged the oncoming blast, sliding to a stop just to the right of it.

Now the shadow focused its attention on him and Vanellope, charging right at them. It transformed into an animal with sharp teeth and huge claws ready to fight. Ralph was ready to take any challenge head on.

He charged at the shadow, one hand raised in a fist and the other protectively shielding Vanellope. When his hand crashed down into the shadow, he was struck with shock.

The shadow blocked his gigantic fist.

Before he could grasp it, the shadow flung him backwards down onto his back. It came charging at him again, this time with a determined expression on its face.

Ralph braced for the worst to come, shutting his eyes and holding onto his friend.

Nothing came.

After a long moment of sudden silence, Ralph squinted his eyes open to a sight he never expected to see.

A bright glow of light shining around a girl wearing a green dress. She had something in her hands, a weapon of sorts that he had never seen before. Golden eyes stared at the shadow with a shining purpose.

He then realized who stood before him.

_Lucy?_


	15. Chapter 14: One of a Kind

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 14: One of a Kind

Something built up inside Lucy that she had never felt before. It was something that she never thought she would obtain.

Courage.

She stood between the monster and her friends, with a staff like stick in her hand. Ever since she could remember Lucy was able to produce magic to heal, but also she was able to conjure from her imagination. Whether it be a weapon, a painting coming to life, or even her memories; she never thought that with courage and her powers that she would be so strong. The monster stared at her dazed, as if it did not expect her to come out of nowhere.

Taking a quick breath, Lucy charged toward the monster, not feeling any fear. She managed to give a few whacks to the monster before it came to its senses. Roaring with anger the shadow monster swung its claws toward her. Lucy blocked its claws with her stick staff, pushing it away every time the monster tried to hit her. When it tried to charge at her, Lucy just simply moved out of the way in a flash of golden light. She was amazed to find this power much like Vanellope's glitch, quick and fast.

Lucy weaved back and forth between the shadow, angering it more and more with her swiftness. When its rage became unbearable, the monster swung with all its might, surprising Lucy and knocking her to the ground. The monster saw its chance and charged straight at her. Quickly she got up on her feet, but the monster was too fast to dodge. Lucy closed her eyes and raised her staff to block it. No attack came however when she opened her eyes, seeing the shadow's dazed face once more.

Lucy looked around herself and saw a golden bubble-like shield surrounding her. She blinked in awe as the shield disintegrated before her eyes. The shadow monster was still dazed when Lucy charged at the monster again, this time the staff doing more damage to it than before. When the shadow did come out of its daze, it tried to attack Lucy again. This time though every time it tried to hit her, the bubble shield would reappear and block its attack. The shadow became more and more furious as it tried to hit her with no success.

Now Lucy knew she had to finish off the shadow before anyone got hurt, including her. With the staff in one hand, she conjured from her hand an orb of light in the other. With one last breath she ran towards the monster as fast as she could, with it charging towards her.

She knew that this was their final attack.

Closing her eyes she thrust her hand forward towards the shadow. She felt the shock of the blow go through her whole body as she was thrown to the ground by the force of the hit. The shadow monster did not move shocked and wide eyed. Then almost immediately the shadow dissipated leaving a golden light shining for a moment before disappearing.

Lucy blinked at the spot where the shadow used to be, unsure of what she saw was real.

_"D-Did I just do that?! Was that me?!" _

She looked down at the hand that held the staff. To her surprise the staff was disappearing in a golden light, which faded completely as well as the staff. She closed her hand around where the staff used to be, and found herself shaking all over with fear and excitement.

"Amazing!" Arren's voice exclaimed as she looked to see her friends slowly come towards her.

Each expression they had on their face was pure wonder and amazement. She knew now that they had seen her use her powers. Lucy did not know what to do as they came closer to her.

_"I don't want to put them in danger like that...I have to get away…."_

As if answering to her request, she found herself teleporting farther away from them. She gasped still not used to the sudden teleporting, then got up and ran away as fast as she could. Lucy heard voices calling out after her, but she did not listen and only kept running. Everything went past her in a blur and soon she found herself lost in the candy tree forest.

_"Why?! Why did I have to protect them?! I knew that the shadow was dangerous…I shouldn't have put them through all this!"_

Lucy kept running until her feet couldn't take her any farther. She stopped and sat with her knees up to her chest. She lay her head down and started to sob, all the while hearing the splash of water nearby.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Ralph stared after Lucy until she disappeared, then kept staring at the place where she ran off to. He could not believe it himself when Lucy singlehandedly took down the monster without faltering more than once.

"Lucy come back!" he heard Eris say as she tried to run after her.

Vanellope stood up and glitched to Eris calling after Lucy as well. The others followed suit running after her and calling her name. But Ralph knew she was already gone from sight.

"We got to find her." Archer said worried.

"Do you think we should split up and look for her?" Gen asked.

"Yeah, I think that's the best idea." Vanellope replied running ahead.

Ralph stood up and looked on as the group agreed to go look for her. He then looked to where Lucy had disappeared to.

"I better find her before she hurts herself." Ralph decided, heading in the direction that Lucy ran.

Instead of running he walked on, somehow feeling that he knew where he was going.

_"Why am I so calm about finding her? I should be worried." _Ralph thought as he continued walking along into the candy tree forest.

He looked back in the direction where he had left his friends, "I guess they'll be worried about my disappearance." he chuckled.

It seemed like he had walked a long time and found himself lost when he came across something glowing in the distance. Wondering if he had found something new, Ralph walked toward it slowly. As he came closer, the glow turned into the glittering waters of a mysterious lake. Finally he reached the lake, standing at the edge of a beautiful clearing. The trees were not candy cane trees, but rather they were tall, blossoming trees reaching up to the pink sugary sky. The lake's waters shone a vanilla color with little laps of waves brushing up on the shore.

It was then that he caught his eyes on a figure close to the vanilla colored waters.

"Lucy." Ralph gasped silently as he saw Lucy's tiny figure sat hunched over the waters. She was trembling a little, and listening closely he could hear her quietly sobbing.

_"I've never seen her cry before."_

Quietly Ralph slowly walked over to her, being careful not to scare or surprise her. He gently sat down next to her, but not too close to make her uncomfortable. Lucy did not look up at him but kept on sobbing quietly. As gently as he could be, Ralph placed one of his giant arms around her hunched figure and pulled her closer to him.

The sobs stopped only for a few moments as Ralph realized that as gentle as he was he managed to scare her.

"Hey, Lucy." Ralph simply said unmoving.

She turned her head to the side looking up at him. Tears had filled her eyes which were red from crying, and her eyes told him that she felt guilt and pain.

"Are you okay?" he asked cautiously, "Are you hurt?"

Lucy shook her head slowly still looking up at him. He was relieved she wasn't in pain, but something told him that not everything was alright.

"I just….need to be alone right now." Lucy finally spoke softly. She turned her head back to its original spot but did not move away from his gentle grip.

"Look, I'm not sure what's going on. But I want to help you—"

This time Lucy freed herself from his grip and moved away. "I don't need any help!" she exclaimed in choking sobs.

Ralph felt hurt and confused, for he had not seen Lucy like this before. It was like he was meeting a whole new person.

"Then I should at least know why you ran away like that." he replied in a sad and worried tone.

Lucy stayed silent, hugging her knees to her chest. Ralph waited patiently for her to respond, hearing the calming waves of the lake move back and forth.

"Okay." Lucy replied. She let go of her knees and gestured for him to come closer. He did so, looking expectantly at her.

"I…ran away because I was scared. Scared of what might happen to you guys." Lucy said speaking softly.

"What do you mean? We're safe thanks to you and your courage." Ralph said.

"It's not that…" Lucy replied sadly looking down.

"Then…what is it that you're scared of?" he asked gently.

Lucy did not say anything to him, but instead held out her left hand to him. On the tip of her forefinger there was a black spot that was darker than anything he had seen.

"What is it?" he asked nervously.

"A curse." Lucy answered, "When I was exiled from my game something came after me, and one day it managed to wound me. It had almost taken my eye out but I was too quick."

She turned her face, lifting the hair on her left side to show a tiny scar right next to her eye.

"It's a Shadow Curse from what I've heard from my game. If a shadow creature ever had a grudge against you and you got wounded, the darkness will spread through you when you are sad and in pain." Lucy said with her voice trembling as she explained.

Ralph was listening with worry and with a bad feeling in his heart.

"What happens…when it's complete…?"

"You turn into one of them." Lucy replied after a silent uneasiness.

The both of them stayed silent, the calming waves doing nothing to ease their worry and fear.

"I see…" Ralph replied after a while. He slowly stood up and looked out onto the lake.

_"So this is why she has stayed away from everyone…to protect them from herself."_

He heard Lucy quietly stand up with him, looking out over the lake as well. Her face showed sadness and fear with no hint of happiness at all.

Through a sudden realization and unknown determination Ralph found himself turning Lucy towards him, having shocked her in response.

"Listen to me Lucy, you are not a bad person. You saved us from that shadow monster using your courage and inner strength! I think that it's something to be proud of, so don't go saying that you are not a good guy just because of this shadow's curse! You are something special Lucy, one of a kind, and no one-not even a shadow- can take that away from you."

Lucy looked at him wide-eyed, shock spread across her face. Then she slowly smiled again, tears streaming in her eyes. Without any words she sprung onto him, holding him in a tight hug. Ralph's face went bright red as he found himself hugging Lucy back as gently as he could.

"Thank you Ralph." Lucy said through his thick shirt.

Ralph smiled as he held onto her a little tighter.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy found herself smiling like she had used to when she was a kid as she looked out on the beautiful lake she never realized she was next to. Ralph sat next to her smiling as well seeming like he was lost in this place.

"This place is quite beautiful." Lucy said softly to herself looking at the vanilla colored waters.

She reached out a finger to lightly touch the water. To her surprise the water turned a different color at her touch. A ripple of gold went across the lake from the point where she touched it.

"Whoa!" both her and Ralph replied as they watched the golden ripple disappear. Lucy blinked staring at the vanilla waters that took up the color once more. Smiling she placed one of her feet in the water, turning the lake to a deep golden color. She giggled happily and placed her other foot into the water.

Lucy looked thoughtfully upward towards the pink sugary sky. She wished that this peacefulness she felt here could last forever, but Lucy knew that she could not stay here forever. There were people expecting her to come back. Especially her new friends.

All the sudden Lucy felt something gently holding her hand. She looked over and saw Ralph's huge hand enveloping hers. Looking up at his face she noticed that he had turned red once more. Lucy smiled as she held onto his hand, feeling her cheeks grow very warm.

After a long while, Ralph let go of her hand and stood up. "We should get back. I…kind of left the group without telling. So they might be worried about the _both of us._"

"Okay then." Lucy said standing up as well.

As the two started to walk back, Lucy looked back at the wonderful scene that she was about to leave. She grabbed Ralph's arm to signal him to stop.

"What's up?" he asked with a confused expression.

Lucy shifted back and forth on her feet, "Well…I was wondering if um, we could keep this place a secret between us?"

Ralph gave her a confused expression, showing he did not understand.

"I-I mean, this place is something that I now cherish. It kinda reminds me of home. S-So, can we-"

"Sure." Ralph replied with a smile, "This can be our secret place if that's what you want to call it."

"Yeah! Our Secret Place!" Lucy exclaimed happily.

Ralph laughed at her outburst, leading Lucy to laugh happily with him.

"Alright then, let's go!" Ralph exclaimed, suddenly picking Lucy up from the ground and placing her on his shoulders.

Lucy was caught off guard as she held on tightly to him around his neck.

"Don't worry, I won't drop you." he said reassuringly as he began to walk again.

Lucy believed him, but still held onto him tightly as they went back the way they came. Soon after a long while they came out of the candy forest, right back to where the others were waiting.

"You guys are okay!" Vanellope's voice shouted to them as they came closer.

"Sorry I left you guys like that." Ralph said smiling nervously.

Eris crossed her arms, "Well, at least you two are okay."

"And not eaten by anything!" Arren chimed in.

"ARREN!" Eris shouted at Arren.

"What? It could maybe happen you know." he retorted.

Lucy smiled at the group, glad to be back among familiar people. Something then caught her eye up in the sky. She looked up to see a beautiful pink sky above her, finding herself closer thanks to Ralph's height. Something white in the pink sky fluttered above Lucy, a butterfly that she had seen before.

_"So beautiful."_ Lucy thought reaching out to the butterfly.

"You guys look so adorable! It was so nice of you to give her a piggy back ride!" Vanellope exclaimed with a smug smile.

Lucy looked down to see Ralph's face turn completely red. She giggled quietly at the sight, _"He's so adorable when he turns red."_

_"Wait, why am I saying that?!" _Lucy felt her face grow warm as well, but not for the same reason as Ralph's.

"Kid!" Ralph said, his face growing redder.

"What? You two do look cute!" Vanellope answered still smiling.

"I agree." Arren chimed in.

"ARREN!" Eris shouted at him again.

Lucy could not help but giggle as they continued to argue. She wondered if the butterfly was still there, looking up into the sky again. She sighed sadly when she found the white butterfly gone once more. And yet she still kept smiling as she continued to gaze into the pink sky.

_"I'll take this as a good sign then." _she thought to herself, _"Maybe this time…things will be different. Maybe…I can finally find happiness."_

With that thought in mind, she put her head up against Ralph's, hugging him from up on his back.

_"Ralph's right…I am special in my own way. A one of a kind. And no one can take that away from me."_


	16. Chapter 15: Tobi

**Oh man! I finally got to writing something awesome! **

**It's about time that I wrote the next chapter of this series that I'm not giving up on! **  
><strong>I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I hope it's not to bad to read (I feel that I'm out of practice a bit). Plus new character now (sort of)!<strong>  
><strong>I sincerely hope to continue on with the next one soon.<strong>

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 15: Tobi

A few weeks had passed by ever since the adventure in Sugar Rush. Within these few weeks, Lucy still could not believe the friends she had acquired. In fact she felt rather happier than before, as she continued to draw. Sophie was calmly perched on her shoulder, watching her with its small beady eyes. Wrapped around one of her hands was the cloth from Ralph's shirt that was used to tend her bruise the night she met him. At this time Game Central Station was empty, with the arcade still open and the characters all in their games. Lucy did not mind the emptiness at all, for she was used to it since she came here.

"This is coming out great." she said aloud putting in the last few strokes of her pencil.

Sophie cooed in reply looking away from the drawing altogether. Lucy found this odd and stopped drawing, "What's wrong Soph?"

The bird turned and looked at her with a very odd look in her eyes.

"What? Is something wrong?" Lucy asked with a look of growing concern.

Sophie shook her feathers a few times, then turned her head in the same direction. Lucy turned her head to her friend's to see the entrance to _Hero's Duty_, which was Sgt. Calhoun's game.

Sophie then fluttered her wings and took off towards the entrance.

"Wait, Sophie hold on!" Lucy called, putting her drawing down and following closely behind. As they reached the entrance Sophie lightly landed on her shoulder again.

"We can't go in there Soph, the arcade's still open." Lucy told her little companion.

The bird shook her wings in protest, making Lucy flinch a little. She looked at the entrance into _Hero's Duty_, wondering why Sophie would react to a game like this.

"I'm going to get into so much trouble." she murmured as she entered into the game, clutching the cloth in her hand tightly.

Sophie carefully stayed on Lucy's shoulder as she cautiously got onto the train that led into the _Hero's Duty_. As soon as she was inside, the train rocketed with great speed towards the game ahead.

"What is in this game that you want me to see?" Lucy asked on the way.

The bird said nothing but looked straight ahead. Lucy said nothing more as they both reached their destination. Cautiously she got out of the train and onto the platform, seeing a bunch of soldiers dressed in techy suits run by her. She carefully made her way through without causing any attention. She walked through a system of hallways and corridors until they reached a rather odd-looking door. Lucy put her hands on the door, and tried to push it open, but nothing seemed to happen. Sophie looked intently at the door and fluttered her wings madly.

"There's something behind this door?" Lucy asked curiously, "But I can't get it open…"

All of a sudden the door opened mysteriously on its own, revealing a rather dark and horribly scarred landscape. There was no sun or moon, just very thick, dark clouds with ash and embers floating down from the air. Sophie took off like lightning into the mysterious land, with Lucy running after her to keep up.

As soon as they were through, the door slowly closed back up.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

A big crowd of people were in Game Central Station when Ralph and Felix arrived. Being a Saturday with the arcade closed on Sunday, characters were now going about and having fun or meeting up with friends.

"I've never seen so many characters in one place." Ralph said gazing among the crowds of characters passing.

"Apparently you haven't gone out on Saturdays." Felix said with a smile.

"Usually it's to Tapper's though. But this is a really big crowd." Ralph replied in awe.

As Ralph looked around in the crowd, he could not see Lucy anywhere even though he was really tall and could see who everyone was. He thought this very odd, knowing that she was always here whenever he came to visit her.

_"Where is she? Did something happen to her?"_ Ralph worried as he kept looking.

He suddenly felt someone bump into him. He looked down to see a person wearing a blue hoodie.

"Eris?" he said curiously.

"Oh, hello Ralph. Sorry about that." Eris replied taking a few steps back.

"You know, you should watch where you're going Eris."

Arren smiled as he joined the group.

"It's not my fault, I couldn't see through this crowd!" Eris replied crossing her arms.

"Well…that's true." Arren admitted still smiling.

Eris rolled her eyes in reply. Ralph could not help but chuckle softly.

"Have you guys seen Lucy at all?" he asked the two of them.

Eris shook her head, "We haven't…actually we were looking for her too."

"Isn't she sometimes with you two?" Felix asked.

"Not always, she could be anywhere for all I know." Arren sighed.

"Where could she be then?" Ralph thought aloud.

Just then a sudden commotion made the group turn and look. Ralph saw that the commotion was coming from the entrance to Calhoun's game. Curious he carefully made his way through the crowd towards what he made out to be Calhoun and the other soldiers from the game. Felix, Eris, and Arren were right behind him with as much curiousness as well. When they had made their way through, the group caught the sight of Sgt. Calhoun and her soldiers standing in front of their game.

"Tammy!" Felix exclaimed making his way to his wife.

Calhoun looked in the group's direction with a look of concern in her eyes.

"I have no time to relax on this Saturday." She stated, "Something has happened in our game."

"What happened?" Eris asked worriedly.

"No one went Turbo did they?" Ralph asked with the same concern.

"Nothing like that. Someone did sneak into the game and is in the danger zone full of waiting Cybugs."

"We could help get whoever it is out." Eris suggested.

"Negatory! Only the best and the strongest can go through the course of _our_ game." said the man to the right of Calhoun, who was named Kohut.

"Easy soldier, these are my friends." Calhoun told him sternly, "But he is right, you would have to be tough to make it through."

"_I'm_ tough enough!" Arren smirked throwing a few air punches.

Eris sighed and rolled her eyes again. "What he means to say is we are strong magic wise."

"I'll be able to help." Ralph pitched in, "These wrecking hands are pretty good for something when it comes to smashing Cybugs around."

Calhoun looked at the group worriedly, but gave them a firm nod. "If that's what you want, then I won't stop you. Just don't go and get yourself killed or you won't regenerate."

With that Calhoun, her soldiers, and Ralph and the crew headed into _Hero's Duty_ to get to the matter at hand.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy clutched the cloth so tightly that her hand turned white. She was scared and felt a very dark gloom that spread throughout the barren land. She barely kept up with Sophie who kept flying forward in determination. The bird finally stopped after a long while of flying and walking, landing on something round and oval. Hexagon shapes were present all around the oval object and glowed a dull and bright green. Lucy had to catch her breath, kneeling down with her hands pressed down on her knees.

"What is this?" Lucy said after she caught her breath.

Sophie shook her feathers and flew up onto Lucy's shoulder. Lucy in turn picked up the oval object and turned it in her hands once. Almost immediately the oval object started to crack in her hands. The hexagons spread all over the object and grew bigger until they suddenly disappeared completely. Lucy gasped as she saw in her hands a tiny bug-like creature with big green eyes staring up at her.

For a long moment Lucy just stared at the creature unmoving and scared. The creature still looked up at her, until its face changed from blank and lifeless to a sudden anger and tenseness. It shook and growled as if it was about to pounce at Lucy's head. It was then that Lucy noticed that the creature was a Cybug, the main enemy of _Hero's Duty_. The little cybug still shook and tensed up, but Lucy realized that it was not in anger.

_"It looks…so scared. Like me."_

Lucy smiled and held out a gentle hand to it, "It's alright, there is nothing to fear. I'm not going to hurt you." She said softly.

The Cybug stared at the hand for a short moment before biting her pinkie. Lucy winced at the pain, but did not stir from where she sat. The bug kept its teeth sunk into her pinkie, but Lucy just kept smiling.

"See, I will not hurt you." She warmly cooed.

The little Cybug looked up into her golden eyes, and suddenly changed. In its eyes it became less scared and felt more sorrowful. Its teeth slowly let go of her pinkie as it tried to suck the blood that streamed from it.

"You were just scared, huh?" Lucy asked with a smile.

It nodded slowly, giving a small soft screech in apology as it still tried to make her pinkie better.

Lucy laughed softly as she petted the little Cybug with the remaining free fingers she had. Sophie cooed softly as she watched from Lucy's shoulder. When the Cybug finally let go of her pinkie it slowly crawled up her arm and onto her other shoulder, very close to her head.

Lucy gasped when she suddenly heard very loud screeches coming from all directions. The little cybug moved closer to Lucy, almost hiding behind her hair. Lucy slowly stood up on her feet, looking around in all directions.

"Is that the sound of other Cybugs?" Lucy wondered aloud.

As she asked this from out of nowhere a bigger Cybug came up close to her, and bit into her side.

"AH!" Lucy screamed and on instinct smacked the Cybug with her fists a few times before it backed off. She grabbed her side as she felt pain and a small amount blood come from it. As she backed up all around her more Cybugs came into view surrounding her and preventing her from getting away quickly.

Lucy knew the only choice now was to fight them back. And knew there was no escape plan out of this.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Ralph knew something was terribly wrong, as if the atmosphere of the game was a lot more tense than usual. The group slowly made their way through the long hallways with Calhoun leading the way.

"Something seems…_off_ about this place." Eris commented quietly.

"You're telling me, I'm getting really cold shivers here!" Arren agreed, shaking a bit.

"It's always been off in this game, with all the Cybugs around." Calhoun said as she continued to lead the way.

As they kept walking along, Ralph felt the familiar hallways in which he went through when he had game jumped just a year ago. _"I can't believe it has been long ago that I walked through here."_

The group then came to the door leading out to where the gameplay was held. It was then that Calhoun seemed the most troubled.

"What's going on? Someone knew how to open this door, but I'm the only one who knows how." She finally said worriedly.

Ralph and the others looked at each other in both confusion and worry.

"You mean…someone went past this door, into whatever's beyond this door?" Arren asked.

"Not just someone can accidentally happen upon this door and open it." Calhoun replied tensed.

As they were discussing what could have caused this, Ralph thought he had heard something on the other side of the door. He listened carefully and could hear the familiar sound of Cybugs, but he could also hear something else that sounded familiar. _"Who is that? Why do I….?"_

He suddenly understood what was behind that door.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy knew she had summoned a weapon using her magic before. The problem was that she could not figure out how she did it.

Clutching her side tightly she scanned each Cybug that surrounded her, estimating that there was a big handful of them, twenty at least. On her shoulder she could feel the baby Cybug move closer to her out of fear, and Sophie staying close to her on Lucy's shoulder.

_"Think Lucy! How did you do it last time?"_

She tried to concentrate and imagine the weapon she last used to save her friends in Sugar Rush, only this time it was to be saving her _and_ her companions.

Then it happened. When she opened her eyes, there was the staff that she had the last time. Now suddenly filled with sudden courage and determination she swung her staff once at a few of the Cybugs. Almost immediately they flew up in the air and hung for a few seconds before pummeling into the ground as they dissipated. She swung at a few more Cybugs with the same effect, with each dissipating at the one blow.

_"Yes! I—"_Lucy suddenly winced as the pain in her side came rushing back to her. She semi-collapsed on her knees, with her staff gone yet again. The Cybugs now took this as an opportunity and charged all around her at once.

But what Lucy saw next she could not believe her eyes.

When the Cybugs were just inches away from her, a painfully loud screech came from right beside her. Wincing she stared at another Cybug that was smaller than the others, but it was looming over Lucy as if in a protective stance.

_"It can't be…is that the baby Cybug?!"_

Lucy was too surprised to move as she witnessed Cybugs clashing into the one protecting her. Each one that faced it dissipated by its bite and clawing.

"Wow…." Lucy whispered as the Cybug turned to her and chirped. In the blink of an eye she saw it transform back into the baby Cybug it once was.

"How…is that possible?" Lucy gasped as she took it in her hands.

Before she could wrap her mind around it, more painful screeches came from all directions. She tried to get up or move, but the pain in her side made it difficult to do anything. All she could do was close her eyes and wait for them to come.

Out of the blue she was suddenly moved only a little out of the way. She found herself lying on the ground and still could not move. Lucy felt herself begin to lose consciousness, but opened her eyes to see many figures moving around her, shielding her against the Cybug attacks. The pain was now unbearable as she shivered violently from the sharp-needles poking in her side. The last thing she saw and heard was the sound of the baby Cybug in her ear, and the shape of someone familiar smashing the Cybugs left and right.

_"Hold on Lucy!"_ a voice whispered in her ear before the world finally went black.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Ralph kept beating the bugs back, his fists clenched and ready to wreck anything and everything in his way. It was this way until the beacon lit up at the tower ahead of them, causing the Cybugs to fly towards it. Only when the last one was destroyed did Ralph finally relax and unclench his huge wrecker hands.

It was no surprise to him that the sound he had heard was Lucy's, as he had recognized it instantly. As soon as he told Calhoun and the others about what he heard, they immediately went out to find her. Strangely there were a few hordes of Cybugs that were roaming around, and when he saw her there almost collapsed to the ground he suddenly somehow lost control. He had clenched his wrecking hands and started to go on a rampage to get to her and move her out of harm's way. Now that she was though he could finally relax and calm himself before he had another reason to lose his temper.

Looking behind him now he saw the figures of Eris and Arren scanning an unconscious Lucy. She seemed to be alright, but he noticed that she was in pain.

He slowly walked back to them, looking back once to check and see if there were no other possible dangers around.

"She's okay, but has a wound in her side." He heard Eris say.

"Well, should we get her to someplace safe then?" Arren asked unsurely.

"Felix will be able to fix her up easily." Ralph replied kneeling down to their level.

For a moment Ralph thought he saw something move next to Lucy, but it was gone within a second.

"Well…we should get back. I don't like this place." Eris shuddered looking around.

Ralph nodded in agreement, and carefully picked up the unconscious Lucy in his arms being careful not to hurt her. The three then hurried back as fast as they could to the ship, where Felix and Calhoun were waiting for them.

"Oh my land! Is she okay?" Felix asked as they came up.

Calhoun only gave them a stern look and said nothing. Ralph knew that she was not happy with what had happened.

"She's only wounded a little, we were wondering if you could help her Felix." Eris explained.

"Can do!" he replied taking out his hammer.

Ralph knelt down to Felix's level and carefully supported Lucy in one of his huge hands. With a _clink_ of Felix's hammer the wound was completely gone. Now as he looked down on her, the pain in her face was gone and was replaced with a peaceful sleep.

"She's still unconscious, but fine." Felix said looking her over.

Ralph sighed in relief, but looked at Calhoun to see there was concern but also a look that told him that Lucy was in trouble. He just hoped it wasn't too big of trouble.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Lucy was woken up to muffled, loud voices and to a soft pillow on her head. Opening her eyes she stirred and blinked, trying to make clear of where she was. Suddenly she felt movement down by the back of her head.

"Wha…" Lucy muffled sleepily turning her head.

To her relief it was only the baby Cybug staring at her with a look of joy on its face. She reached her hand out to it and smiled.

"Thank goodness you're safe." She whispered softly.

The cybug chirped happily and crawled closer to Lucy's head. She smiled but then frowned wondering how she had got here in the first place. Cautiously she lifted her head slowly, then her whole body which she surprisingly found easy to move.

"The wound!" she shouted reaching for her side, only to find the wound completely gone. _"That's strange…I know I had a wound here from the Cybug…."_

Beside her she heard the cooing of Sophie and the chirping of the baby Cybug. She smiled down at them, but was still confused.

"You know I don't think you have a name huh?" she said to the little cybug.

It chirped in reply and crawled up onto her lap. Lucy thought long and hard to find a name for it.

"How about….Tobi." she said finally looking down to it for approval.

It chirped with such joy in response that she had to pet it a few times to calm it down.

"Alright then, Tobi is your name then." Lucy laughed happily.

Her laughing was interrupted when she heard the muffled, loud noises again. Looking around she realized that she was in a bed in a small room, with a metal door that sat in front of her. Lucy decided to see if she could get up and find out what was going on. Throwing the sheets off carefully she stepped down onto the cold floor, making her shiver a little being barefoot. Walking a few cautious steps she concluded that she was able to walk, and headed toward the closed door. Tobi and Sophie followed close behind, landing on both Lucy's shoulders.

"You know she needs to apologize for putting herself and us in danger!"

"She did not know this would happen, you don't know if she was just there accidentally!"

"I don't _care_ if she was innocent of what might happen! It's still her responsibility for all of this chaos!"

Lucy recognized the voices of her friends. _"Why are they arguing? Did I do something wrong?"_

Lucy felt at a loss for words, for she knew that if she had gone into this game she would be endangering herself and her friends' lives. She suddenly felt responsible for everything that happened, all because of her curiousness of what was there.

Tobi's chirping interrupted Lucy's thoughts, but also made the loud voices go silent. Lucy backed away from the door nervously, putting a finger on her lips to tell Tobi to be quiet. For a while the silence stayed there, hanging in the air like a fog. Finally there was a shuffling of people outside walking away from the room, with the voices going quieter the further away they were. Lucy sighed in relief by the time they were gone. Slowly she crept up to the door again and cautiously opened it.

She encountered a brightly lit hallway as she stepped out of the room. It was surprisingly quiet and eerie almost as Lucy looked left and right.

"Well…I guess we better face the truth head on." She said with a growing concern.

Having both Tobi and Sophie by her side, she walked to the right to find and confront the friends that supposedly saved her life.


	17. Chapter 16: Finding Courage

The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts

Chapter 16: Finding Courage

As she walked farther into the hallways, Lucy could tell that the explanation would not be easy to tell to her friends. Finally she heard familiar voices around the corner and stopped.

"Boy, I've never seen Sarge this mad, even for her!" said an unfamiliar voice.

"Do you think the little girl is in trouble?" another voice said.

"Of course! Sarge isn't one to let things go."

Now Lucy was having second thoughts about her approach, knowing now that Calhoun was definitely mad. _I can't just walk up to them and expect them to listen now. I wish I could…_

"Where is the little girl anyway?"

"Asleep I'm thinking, though it won't be long before she wakes up."

Lucy stayed hidden until she heard the voices trail away. From the way they were speaking she assumed they were soldiers who were in Calhoun's squad.

**_"Chirp…"_** Tobi's voice ringed weakly in Lucy's ears.

"It's okay, they're gone now." Lucy said stroking the baby cybug in reassurance.

_"I need to know myself…I need to know if what these men say are true."_

With a deep breath Lucy continued on. She ushered Sophie and Tobi to stay hidden for the time being. Her two companions both hid inside Lucy's hair in the back of her head. For a while she walked through the maze-like hallways until suddenly she heard familiar voices.

"Why are you all defending her? Aren't you the least bit mad or disappointed?!"

_"That sounds like Calhoun's voice…"_ Lucy gulped creeping closer to the voices.

It was around the corner at the end of the hallway where she could hear the voices the loudest. She stopped and slightly peaked from behind the corner to see what was happening. She recognized Calhoun and Felix right away, but the other faces were hidden from view. From what she could tell, her friends seemed to be all arguing at the same time.

"She's just a young girl! She doesn't know her way around!"

"You can't blame her for not knowing what would happen!"

_"That's Eris and Arren's voices, what are they doing here?" _Lucy wondered surprised that they were defending her.

"Just because she does not know much, doesn't mean that she's not in trouble for this." Calhoun responded not losing her tone.

"I'm sure she has a reason for going into your game when the arcade was still open." Felix chimed in trying to ease the tension.

"It had better be a good one then." Calhoun replied with a huff.

Lucy was afraid to move or even make a sound. She did not know what to do, if she should come around the corner and face them.

_"Why am I such a big coward…why can't I be brave?!" _she thought feeling very guilty for coming here in the first place.

Tobi's questioning chirp snapped Lucy back, realizing that it was loud and could be heard.

"_SHUSH!_" Lucy whispered intensely backing away from the corner.

The voices of her friends all went silent as she heard footsteps coming towards her. She soon became frightened about what would happen, and in that fear she ran as fast as she could away from them.

For some reason she was very good at running, and loved to run for that matter. But under the circumstances she was running away from her friends, like a tiny meek mouse would.

_"I'm a big coward…just a scared little girl who runs away…."_

_I'll never be brave like them._

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

Ralph heaved a heavy sigh, walking through the corridors and hallways. He was glad to be away from the fierce arguments and tensions that were rising all because of Lucy's actions. He knew that she had a reason to come here, and surprisingly was not very mad at her. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard their voices and footsteps coming from not too far away.

_"Now what's going on?" _he wondered. He took a few steps but then stopped when he heard something unusual coming from the other direction. The sound seemed familiar to him, as if it was something he encountered before. Against his better judgement he went to go look for where the sound was coming from.

When he turned a corner Ralph was surprised to come across another sound. A very sad sound, like someone was crying. Ralph quickened his pace, knowing exactly who it was now. After turning a few more corners he stopped and listened for the sobbing again. Once more he heard it, and knew he was close. He peaked behind the next corner to see a messy-haired Lucy, who had her knees pulled up and her face hidden as she sobbed.

_"This looks…oddly familiar." _Ralph thought realizing that something about the way she was positioned reminded him of something long ago. He shook his head, _"No time for wondering and trying to remember something from long ago."_

Carefully and cautiously he came around the corner, and gently sat down next to her. They both were silent except for the echoing sniffles Lucy made through her knees.

"I was wondering where you went off to." Ralph finally said softly trying not to startle her.

Lucy sat unmoving, but her sobs and sniffles finally stopped.

"We were all very worried about you."

Ralph was not prepared for the cold but sad look Lucy gave him.

"Or you all are just mad at me for doing something wrong!" she said coldly.

Ralph frowned, trying his best not to lose his temper, "_I_ was worried about you! We all were scared because you went into this game before the arcade was closed. You could have been seen by the gamers!"

"Yeah, I knew the arcade was still open! I knew that I would be in danger if I went in!"

"Then why did you?!" Ralph asked in a raised voice.

"I DON'T KNOW!" Lucy yelled, now turning her face towards him. He was taken aback when he saw that her face was filled with tears, her eyes red from crying.

"Okay, okay. Calm down, I'm sorry I yelled." Ralph said with a sigh.

Lucy wiped the tears that were still in her eyes, then turned away from him and stared at the wall opposite of her.

"It's just…Sophie led me here, and I found…."

"Who's Sophie?" Ralph asked curious.

"M-My friend." Lucy stammered nervously.

He looked at her knowing she was hiding something, to which Lucy sighed in defeat.

"Please don't be mad or freak out." Lucy begged.

"Alright I won't, promise." Ralph replied with a smile as he patted her head with one of his ham hands.

Suddenly he heard the unusual sound again, sounding like a chirp. He pulled his hand back and flinched a little. Behind Lucy's hair peaked two little creatures. One looked like a white bird, which looked at him curiously. But the other creature was why Ralph flinched, because it was a baby Cybug.

Ralph did not know what to do next, he just sat there dumbfounded looking at the two creatures on Lucy's shoulders. She stared at him expectedly, waiting for his response to what he had seen.

"How…were you able to tame it?" he asked slowly, still dumbfounded.

Lucy blinked back in surprise at him like she was expecting him to say something else. "I-I'm not sure. I found him in an egg outside this place, it hatched, and there he was. He took a liking to me after that."

"He? The Cybug has a name?"

"Yeah, I named him Tobi."

The baby cybug chirped happily when he heard its name, making Lucy giggle and smile. Ralph sighed in relief, _"She's smiling again, that's good."_

"Do you want to meet him up close?" Lucy asked hesitantly.

Ralph looked at her unsurely, "I don't know. The last time I saw one up close it tried to eat my face."

Lucy laughed loudly, making Ralph's cheeks turn red, "It's true!" he retorted.

"Don't worry, Tobi won't hurt you, or try to eat your face. Trust me." Lucy smiled holding her hand out.

Ralph took her tiny hand in his big one, feeling very nervous. The baby cybug Tobi curiously peeked out and crawled down on Lucy's arm to their hands, where he hesitated a little before cautiously crawling onto Ralph's big hand. Ralph looked up at Lucy who was smiling at him, then back down to Tobi who blinked its big green eyes at him.

"You were right, he seems to be harmless." Ralph said smiling down at Tobi.

"Told you so!" Lucy said brightening up.

The little Cybug then climbed up onto Ralph's shoulder and brightly chirped. Ralph chuckled softly, petting Tobi a few times. He looked back at Lucy and found her shaking a bit.

_"It must be cold in here. It always seems to be in this game."_ Ralph figured.

Taking a deep breath, his cheeks turning red again, he carefully wrapped one of his hands around Lucy and pulled her closer to him. Lucy's face turned bright red at this as she sat completely still.

_Well at least she's not cold anymore._

They sat there in silence for a while, with Ralph's arm gently wrapped around Lucy.

"I'm such a big coward, I can't even face up to my friends." Lucy sighed sadly.

"What do you mean?" Ralph asked.

"Well…I heard the others talking about me. Before I was sure I could handle it, but…."

"Now you're not so sure huh?"

Lucy turned to look at him, "Yeah."

Ralph thought a moment, "Well, you were able to tell me right? Just tell them the same thing you told me."

Lucy looked down with an unsure look on her face.

"Look, there are going to be times when you don't know what will happen. But you should just be yourself and be confident in what you are doing." He said patting her on the head again.

"You think so?" she asked.

Ralph nodded and smiled, "Of course! And besides…you must be a brave girl to be going into a dangerous game on your own."

"O-Okay." Lucy said nodding, "I'll try then."

Ralph smiled, but flinched when he heard Tobi chirp happily on his shoulder. He almost forgot that the little cybug was there. Lucy giggled at him, then took Tobi off of his shoulder where it hid again behind Lucy's hair.

"Well let's go find the others." Ralph said getting up and offering a hand for Lucy. She took it without hesitation as the two now walked together with more confidence.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

As soon as Lucy saw her friends she began to feel a little nervous, but still kept walking forward. Suddenly she felt someone slam into her and gave her a hug.

"Thank goodness you're okay!" Eris's shaky voice said as she held Lucy tight.

Lucy's cheeks turned pink, but returned Eris's hug with a smile. She heard some lighthearted chuckles around her, but she did not mind.

"You are such a drama queen, Eris." Arren's voice said playfully.

"I am _NOT_!" Eris retorted turning to face him.

"Are you sure?" Arren replied curiously.

"Um…guys?" Lucy pitched in.

They both turned to look at Lucy expectantly. She took a deep breath, "I'm really sorry for worrying all of you, I know it was not right of me to go into a very dangerous game during arcade hours."

Eris and Arren smiled knowingly, seeing that they had forgiven her already. Lucy noticed however that Calhoun was still not convinced.

"Why did you go into our game in the first place?" she asked Lucy with a stern voice.

At this Lucy took another deep breath knowing that she would not like what she was about to do next. She carefully picked up Tobi from behind her, cradling him protectively in her arms. Of course Calhoun's reaction was shock and instinctive as she almost pulled out her gun.

"I found him inside the game, I named him Tobi. He's harmless and won't hurt anyone. I promise I'll take good care of him and not get him in trouble. Just…please don't take him away from me." Lucy said as it all came out very quickly.

For a moment everyone was stunned silent as she held Tobi in her arms. Finally Calhoun walked up to her. Lucy did not know what to expect from her and became a bit nervous. But she only patted Lucy's shoulder a few times with a look of approval and a bit of amazement.

"You may keep him. Just don't let me catch you two getting into big trouble." She said with sternness, but with a softness to her tone.

"Yes ma'am." Lucy nodded smiling relieved that it turned out better than she thought.

Afterwards she felt at ease as she and her friends left the game, heading back to Game Central Station. All the while Lucy still held Tobi in her arms, who was happily chirping.

_"Maybe…now I can finally find courage."_ Lucy thought happily, _"I hope someday I'll be strong and brave as my friends."_

And that she knew eventually it would come true.

0 - 0 - 0 - 0

**_"Well now…it seems that the little girl has grown up." _** A dark voice said smugly.

"She has, don't you think brother?" a female shadow's voice asked next to another similar shadow.

"Yes sister, it's very interesting to see a strong young lady come from a shy little girl." A man shadow's voice replied with a curious tone.

**_"Quiet! I think this will be quite an entertaining game to play…are you ready my friend?" _**the voice asked turning to another shadow behind him who was much bigger than the two next to him.

******"It will be my pleasure, my lord Shadow Man."** The big shadow replied with a bow before dissipating from sight.

"Aww why does _he _get to go first?!" the female shadow whined.

Shadow Man smiled, **_"Patience twins, you will get your chance. Soon…when I bring the magical girl in my control, and return her to where she belongs." _**He said with a very dark chuckle that made both the twins shiver in fear.

For they knew he was the one thing that could destroy the only light now remaining in his way: a magical girl named Lucy.

**A/N: **Thank you so much for your patience to those that are following this story. Let me know what you think so far. Next chapter I will elaborate on this last part, but for now I will leave you with this. I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter.


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